iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil 


handle  this  volume 
with  care. 

The  University  of  Connecticut 
Libraries,  Storrs 


y 


GAYLORD  RG 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  IVIember  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/historyofconnectOOjenk 


A  HISTORY 

of 


by 


Director  Emeritus 


Reprinted  from  History  of  Connecticut  with  the  permission  of 
the  States  History  Company,  Inc. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE 
By  Edward  H.  Jenkins 


fl 


Reprinted    from    History    of    Connecticut    with    permission    of    the    States 
Histo'-y  Company,  Inc. 


"!  /  / 


J  4\^ 


PRELIMINARY 

THIS  paper  is  rather  a  sketch  of  the  course  of  Con- 
necticut agriculture  than  a  complete  history  of  it. 
A  history  should  cover  the  economic,  political  and 
social  relations  which  went  with  and  greatly  affected  its 
practice  and  its  prosperity.  But  such  a  history  would 
of  itself  be  a  volume  and  not,  like  this,  a  single  paper 
among  many  others  relating  to  the  State. 

However,  great  the  temptation  to  discuss  the  broader 
aspects  mentioned,  it  has  been  necessary  therefore  to  con- 
fine the  work  simply  to  the  story  of  the  development  of 
the  art  of  farming,  with  only  the  barest  reference  to  the 
economic  and  political  conditions  of  its  environment. 

To  set  forth  the  effect  on  agriculture  of  the  expansion 
of  manufacturing,  the  embargo  and  non-intercourse  acts, 
the  opening  of  the  west,  the  development  of  transporta- 
tion and  the  six  wars  cannot  be  discussed  here. 

Yet  they  all  deeply  affected  the  course  of  agriculture. 
They  were  like  the  buffetings  of  heavy  waves,  with  agri- 
culture now  on  the  peak  and  then  in  the  trough  of  the 
sea,  constantly  conning  the  helm  and  trimming  its  sails 
to  avoid  shipwreck.  Of  course  this  experience  is  not 
peculiar  to  farming;  all  kinds  of  business  are  affected  in 
the  same  way.  But  these  great  disturbances  bore  with  a 
special  severity  on  the  farmer  because  of  his  inexperience 
in  transacting  business.  For  more  than  a  century  and  a 
half  farming  was  not  a  commercial  business,  but  a  do- 
mestic affair  of  each  house-holder,  chiefly  confined  to  pro- 
viding food  and  clothing  for  his  own  family. 

Business  acumen  and  the  methods  of  trading  have  to 
be  learned  by  long  experience  and  they  are  a  compara- 
tively recent  acquisition  of  the  farmer. 

289 


290  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

It  is  not  so  long  since  the  three  courses  open  to  young 
men  were  "the  professions,  business  and  farming."  At 
present  farming  should  really  be  a  profession  and  a  busi- 
ness in  order  to  be  a  fairly  successful  "calling." 

Aboriginal  Agriculture 

No  writing  or  legend  gives  the  history  of  agriculture 
in  New  England  before  the  coming  of  tthe  white  man. 
But  on  a  somewhat  extensive  scale  a  simple  kind  of  agri- 
culture was  certainly  practiced  by  the  Indian  dwellers 
here  long  before  the  seventeenth  century. 

Almost  its  only  relics  are  the  few  crops  which  they 
raised,  of  which  maize  was  their  staple  and  their  priceless 
bequest  to  their  successors,  a  crop  which  they  cultivated 
extensively  and  stored  for  winter  use. 

This  stored  corn  was  all  that  stood  between  the  first 
settlers  and  great  scarcity  of  food  if  not  of  actual  starva- 
tion and  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  settlement  was  occasion- 
ally bought  of  the  Indians  to  relieve  a  time  of  scarcity. 

It  has  been  one  our  staple  crops  from  Colonial  days  to 
the  present  and  is  now  grown  in  larger  quantity  in  the 
United  States  than  any  other. 

Maize  or  Indian  corn  had  its  origin  in  America  but  has 
been  changed  by  "domestication"  so  that  it  bears  no  close 
resemblance  to  any  native  species  now  known  and  has 
been  developed  out  of  all  fitness  to  survive  in  a  wild  state. 
This  was  probably  a  work  of  centuries  by  people  who 
have  left  no  other  record  of  this  work  in  plant  breeding 
than  the  domesticated  plants  which  they  have  handed 
down  to  us. 

It  is  a  development  for  which  we  are  indebted  probably 
to  some  ancient  civilization  in  Central  or  South  America,. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE         291 

a  development  vastly  more  valuable  than  any  of  those  of 
a  modern  "plant  wizard." 

Of  particular  interest  is  the  Maya  civilization  de- 
veloped in  Yucatan,  of  which  the  earliest  established  date 
is  113  B.  C,  and  the  time  of  greatest  development  from 
455-597  A.  D.  The  Mayas  reached  a  high  state  of  cul- 
ture as  is  shown  by  their  monuments  and  inscriptions 
which  have  lately  been  studied  and  partly  deciphered. 

They  planted  corn,  beans  and  pumpkins,  taking  ad- 
\  antage  of  the  wet  and  dry  seasons  to  harvest  two  crops 
annually.  Among  their  records  are  pictures  of  the  maize- 
god,  planting  corn,  represented  frequently  as  a  youth 
with  a  leafy  headdress,  possibly  meant  to  represent  an 
opening  ear  of  corn.  This  deity  appears  to  be  at  the  mercy 
of  the  evil  deities  when  not  protected  by  the  good  (59,  p. 
94).  Other  pictures  show  attacks  by  worms  and  birds, 
suggesting  that  the  pests  are  as  old  as  the  plant.  The  zo- 
diac sign,  Virgo,  the  Virgin,  is  represented  in  Peruvian, 
Mexican  and  Maya  sculpture  as  the  Maize  Mother. 

Roger  Williams  (10)  writes  of  the  Indian  tradition  as 
to  the  source  from  which  corn  and  beans  came,  ''These 
birds,"  crows,  ''although  they  doe  the  corne  some  hurt, 
yet  scarce  one  native  amongst  an  hundred  wil  kil  them, 
because  they  have  a  tradition,  that  the  Crow  brought 
them  at  first  an  Indian  Graine  of  Corne  in  one  Eare  and 
an  Indian  or  French  Beane  in  another,  from  the  great 
god  Cantantowit's  field  in  the  Southwest  from  whence 
they  hold  came  all  their  Corne  and  Beans."  The  last 
clause  of  this  tradition  is  probably  correct. 

Our  flint,  dent  and  sweet  (45)  types,  the  very  early 
and  the  tall,  later  maturing  sorts  of  corn  were  probably 
all  grown  by  the  aborigines  before  the  settlement  by  white 
men.   In  pre-Columbian  days  one  or  more  varieties  were 


292  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

grown  all  the  way  from  the  St.  Lawrence  on  the  north  to 
the  Rio  de  la  Plata  on  the  south. 

Pumpkins,  squashes,  beans  and  peas  were  also  grown 
by  the  Indians,  all  but  the  last  probably  indigenous  to  this 
country. 

"Peas"  were  grown  by  the  Indians,  according  to  the 
annalists,  but  the  Canada  pea  and  the  field  pea  are  old 
world  plants.  Possibly  a  Lathyrus,  vetchling,  or  some 
small  rounded  bean  is  what  is  referred  to. 

Before  the  coming  of  the  white  man  there  was  a  plenty 
of  land  in  Connecticut  well  enough  cleared  for  growing 
what  crops  were  needed.  Besides  using  the  tidal  marshes 
and  the  alluvial  lowlands,  the  aborigines  had  also  long 
practiced  burning  portions  of  the  woodland  to  make 
easier  the  taking  of  wild  game,  deer  and  turkeys.  This 
cleared  the  forest  of  underbrush  and  young  trees.  Larger 
trees,  (33)  were  girdled  by  the  Indians  to  make  open 
spaces  where  their  crops  could  be  planted,  leaving  them 
ready  for  further  improvement  (24,  Vol.  I). 

The  Narragansetts'  land  in  Rhode  Island  was  cleared 
of  wood  for  eight  or  ten  miles  from  the  seashore  and 
planted  to  corn  (76.  Vol.  I). 

There  is  abundant  evidence  of  large  clearings  else- 
where. 

Says  Roger  Williams,  (10)  "When  a  field  is  to  be 
broken  up,  they  have  a  very  loving,  sociable,  speedy  way 
to  despatch  it ;  all  the  neighbors,  men  and  women,  forty, 
fifty,  a  hundred,  etc.  joyne,  and  come  in  to  help  freely." 
The  field  was  not  wholly  tilled  but  corn  was  planted  in 
hills  12  to  20  inches  in  diameter  and  the  soil  of  these 
hills  was  all  that  was  cultivated.  The  hills  were  used 
over  and  over  in  successive  years  and  they  have  persisted 
in  some  places  until  recent  times.  (10).   Near  the  sea,  at 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  293 

least,  fish,  (menhaden)  were  exclusively  used  as  a  ferti- 
lizer. 

The  implements  of  the  Indians  were  very  crude.  Iron 
was  unknown.  Stone  hoes  and  perhaps  spades  have  been 
found.  Bones,  shells  and  wood  were  also  used;  yet  it  is 
said  of  their  cultivation  (78),  "Wherein  they  exceede  our 
English  husbandmen,  keeping  it  so  cleare  with  their 
Clamme-shell  hoes  as  if  it  were  a  garden  rather  than  a 
Cornefield,  not  suffering  a  choaking  Weede  to  advance 
his  audacious  Head  above  their  infant  Corne,  or  an  un- 
dermining Worme  to  spoile  his  Spurnes." 

They  also  used  a  hoe  made  of  the  shoulder  blade  of  a 
deer  or  a  tortoise-shell,  sharpened  upon  a  stone  and  fas- 
tened to  a  stick. 

"Their  corne  being  ripe,  they  gather  it,  and,  drying 
it  hard  in  the  sunne  conveigh  it  to  their  barnes,  which  be 
great  holes  digged  in  the  ground  in  form  of  a  brasse  pot, 
seeled  with  rinds  of  trees,  wherein  they  put  their  corne, 
covering  it  from  the  inquisitive  search  of  their  gorman- 
dizing husbands,  who  would  eate  up  both  their  allowed 
portion,  and  reserved  Seede  if  they  knew  where  to  find 
it."  (78). 

Connected  with  aboriginal  agriculture  should  be  men- 
tioned two  important  plants  which  were  not  cultivated  but 
were  used  extensively.  The  first  is  a  food  plant  to  which 
writers  refer  as  "rice,"  "Indian  rice,"  or  "Canada  rice," 
Zisania  aqiiatica,  a  grass  which  grows  commonly  along 
the  banks  of  streams  and  marshes  and  in  shallow  water. 
It  was  easily  gathered  in  the  early  fall  and  is  palatable  and 
nutritious.  It  is  still  gathered  and  used  in  the  stuffing  of 
game  birds  and  is  esteemed  a  luxury. 

The  other  plant  yielding  a  textile  fiber,  was  the  Indian 
hemp,  Apocynum  cannabinum,  which  grew  commonly  in 


294  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

this  State.  From  the  fiber  of  this  plant  the  women  twisted 
twine  or  rope  and  made,  among  other  things,  fish  nets, 
sometimes  twenty  or  thirty  feet  long  (69.  Vol.  I). 

Oldham,  in  a  trading  trip  to  Connecticut  in  1633,  found 
that  the  Indian  hemp  grew  spontaneously  in  the  meadows 
in  great  abundance.  "He  purchased  a  quantity  of  it,"  it 
appeared  to  him  ''much  to  exceed  the  hemp  grown  in  Eng- 
land." Later  writers,  however,  pronounced  it  inferior  to 
the  other. 

Roger  Williams  says,  "the  Indians  all  take  tobacco, 
and  it  is  commonly  the  only  plant  which  the  men  labor  in, 
the  women  managing  all  the  rest."  This  was  probably 
Nicotiana  rustica,  a  smaller  plant  and  inferior  to  our  cul- 
tivated species.  It  is  stated  that  it  was  grown  in  Canada 
as  early  as  1535.  Flags  and  rushes  and  certain  vegetable 
dyes  were  used  for  making  baskets.  Carrier  asserts  (9), 
that  "a  comparison,  crop  by  crop,  taking  into  considera- 
tion acreage  and  value  of  these  products  with  all  other 
crops  now  grown  in  the  United  States  shows  quite  clearly 
that  our  agriculture  is  about  one-third  American."  The 
agriculture  of  the  Indians  was  chiefly  if  not  wholly  man- 
aged by  the  women.  Stiles  says,  (61 ) ,  that  a  common  ex- 
hortation at  marriage  was  in  substance,  "You,  man,  must 
take  good  Care  to  hunt  deer  and  fish  and  provide  Meat 
for  your  Squaw.  You,  Squaw,  must  take  care  to  plant 
and  hoe  Corn  and  bring  wood  and  cook  Victuals  for  your 
Sannup." 

The  Indian  men  are  generally  regarded  as  lazy,  shift- 
less and  improvident  in  their  family  life,  allowing  or  forc- 
ing their  women,  who  were  reckoned  to  be  inferior  beings, 
to  do  all  the  drudgery.  No  doubt  there  is  much  of  truth  in 
this.    Laziness,  incompetence  and  contempt  of  women  did 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  295 

not  mark  the  aborigines  as  absolutely  different  from  many 
of  their  successors  in  this  State. 

This  judgment  on  Indian  men  must  be  tempered  by 
the  following"  facts : 

The  woman  owned  all  the  household  property  of  the 
family,  including  the  tools  used  in  farming,  cooking,  dress- 
ing skins  and  making  fabrics  and  in  many  tribes  food, 
skins  and  individual  dwellings  or  wigwams. 

Indian  descent  was  generally  through  the  female  line. 
Children  belonged  to  the  mother's,  not  the  father's  totem. 
In  some  cases  a  female  sub-chief  sold  land  to  the  settlers, 
but  this,  an  international  affair,  was  usually  conducted 
by  the  male  chief  .^ 

The  man  had  to  be  always  ready  to  join  in  a  foray 
against  his  neighbors  of  another  tribe,  or  to  repel  a  foray 
from  them.  He  was  at  all  times  and  of  necessity  a  war- 
rior. Hunting  and  fishing  required  skill  and  strength. 
Thus  women  were  the  property  holders  of  the  family 
groups.  Men  represented  the  army,  legislature  and  courts 
and  did  such  provisioning  of  the  family  as  required  cap- 
ture and  killing.  All  their  work  required  at  times  pro- 
tracted labor,  exposure  and  hunger  and  when  the  search 
for  food  and  the  defense  of  the  property  and  life  allowed, 
they  may  have  been,  in  the  language  of  Kipling,  "most 
'scrutiating  idle."  When  about  his  regular  work  the  In- 
dian was  alert,  crafty  and  superstitious  v/ith  occasional 
streaks  of  loyalty  and  honor  —  and  a  reveller  in  all  the 
arts  of  hideous  cruelty. 

iln  the  allotment  of  land  in  severalty  to  the  Indians  in  modern  times 
one  grievance  w^as  found  to  be  that  it  was  allotted  to  the  man  and  not  to 
his  wife,  contrary  to  their  idea  of  what  was  proper. 


296  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 


Agriculture  in  the  Seventeenth  Century 

The  aboriginal  agriculture  was  the  root  on  which  the 
Colonial  agriculture  was  grafted.  No  attempt  will  be 
made  to  recite  the  events  of  the  colonization  farther  than 
to  note  those  which  have  a  very  direct  bearing  on  agri- 
cultural development. 

It  is  important  to  consider  the  physical  surroundings 
of  the  first  traders  and  immigrants  who  began  coming  to 
Connecticut  in  1631. 

The  country  is  described  as  a  wilderness.  Its  topo- 
graphical features  were  not  very  different  from  what 
obtains  today.  It  was,  of  course,  much  more  thickly 
wooded  than  now  and  abounded  in  heavy  timber.^ 

There  were  of  course  no  roads  but  only  Indian  trails 
and  the  first  settlers  from  Massachusetts  had  perhaps  to 
hew  their  way  for  a  part  of  the  journey. 

The  territory  was  not,  however,  wholly  a  forest,  but 
abounded  as  we  have  seen  in  open,  roughly  cleared  tracts, 
suitable  for  cultivation  and  capable  of  increased  produc- 
tion with  the  use  of  iron  implements,  axes,  hoes  and  spades 
which  the  colonists  brought  with  them. 

The  whole  area  was  occupied  or  claimed  by  various 
tribes  of  Indians  who  numbered,  according  to  Trumbull's 
estimate,  not  less  than  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  and 
possibly  twenty  thousand  (69.  Vol.  I).  But  DeForest 
(23a),  considers  this  much  too  high  an  estimate  and  holds 
that  1,200  warriors  and  6,000  or  7,000  individuals  is  a 
liberal  allowance  for  the  aboriginal  population. 

They  were  more  numerous  in  Connecticut,  in  propor- 

2  (31)  "The  pine  tree  challengeth  the  next  place  and  that  sort  which  is 
called  the  Board  pine  is  the  principal ;  it  is  a  stately,  large  tree,  very  tall, 
and  sometimes  two  or  three  fadoms  about ;  of  the  body  the  English  make 
large  Canows  of  20  foot  long,  and  two  feet  and  a  half  over,  hollowing 
them  out  with  an  adds  and  shaping  the  outside  out  like  a  boat." 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  297 

tion  to  area,  than  elsewhere  in  New  England,  for  the  land 
was  rich  in  game,  the  waters  rich  in  fish  and  the  soil,  in 
parts,  very  fertile. 

These  Indians  chiefly  belonged  to  the  Algonquin  family 
while  over  the  border  in  New  York  was  the  Iroquois 
family,  or  the  "Six  Nations." 

These  families  were  divided  into  a  considerable  number 
of  tribes. 

Thus  the  west  shores  of  Narraganset  Bay  were  peopled 
by  the  Narragansetts,  numerous  and  warlike,  who  held 
in  partial  subjection  the  weaker  Nyantics  near  Point  Ju- 
dith. The  fair  dealing  and  tact  of  Roger  Williams  did 
much  to  restrain  the  hostility  of  the  Narragansetts  to  the 
settlers.  To  the  west  of  these  and  about  the  Thames  River 
were  the  still  more  formidable  Pequots  who  for  fierceness 
and  bravery  were  preeminent  in  southern  New  England. 
Westward,  in  the  lower  Connecticut  valley,  were  the 
Monhegans,  a  small  but  valiant  tribe  held  tributary  to 
the  Pequots  and  restive  under  it.  There  were  also  numer- 
ous lesser  tribes  within  the  present  boundaries  of  this 
State,  Nehantics,  Quinnipiacs,  Tunxis,  Podunks  and 
others.  The  thickly  wooded  mountain  ranges  between 
Connecticut  and  the  Hudson  had  few  inhabitants.  But 
beyond.,  in  New  York,  were  the  fierce  Mohawks,  dreaded 
by  all  the  others,  to  whom  the  Mohegans  paid  yearly 
blackmail  to  avoid  plunder  and  murder  as  far  as  possible 
(26). 

Down  to  about  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  of  Con- 
necticut the  New  England  settlers  had  experienced  no 
great  trouble  with  the  Indians. 

They  were  at  first  disposed  to  be  friendly  but  as  the 
settlements  began  to  be  pushed  further  inland  and  some 
of  their  best  clearings  to  be  occupied  by  the  invaders,  even 


298  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

though  the  land  had  been  fairly  bought  of  the  tribal 
chiefs,  hostility  increased  and  soon  resulted  in  actual  war. 

Of  predatory  wild  beasts,  bears,  wolves,  panthers, 
lynxes  and  foxes  were  very  common  and,  as  will  be  seen 
later,  were  very  destructive  to  the  livestock  and  crops  of 
the  settlers  for  more  than  a  century. 

Into  this  country  adventurers  came  from  Massachu- 
setts in  1633  and  halted  at  Windsor.  This  was  a  trading 
expedition  and  made  no  permanent  settlement.  In  1635 
about  sixty  men,  women  and  children  with  their  cows, 
horses  and  swine  came  overland  from  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Colonies  to  the  region  of  Hartford,  start- 
ing on  October  15th.  They  were  unable  to  build  dwellings 
before  winter,  their  goods  which  were  sent  by  sea  were 
lost  and  most  of  them  made  their  way  back  to  Boston. 

A  very  few  remained  (10).  But  in  1636  Wethersfield, 
Windsor  and  Hartford  were  settled  by  colonists  from 
Massachusetts. 

The  Newton  (Cambridge)  congregation,  (38)  through 
their  minister.  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  urged  from  the 
authorities  permission  to  migrate. 

The  reasons  given  were,  the  crowded  state  of  their 
lands  which  prevented  their  friends  in  England  from  join- 
ing them,^  the  fertility  of  the  Connecticut  soil  as  reported 
by  Oldham  and  the  fact  that  settlement  would  shut  out 
the  Dutch  who  were  trying  to  establish  a  claim  to  Con- 
necticut. 'The  minds  of  this  people  were  strongly  in- 
clined to  plant  themselves  there." 

Hooker  wisely  did  not  mention  in  his  petition  that  there 
was  considerable  discontent  also  with  the  narrowness  and 

3  Cotton  Mather,  (65.  p.  17),  in  referring  to  the  migration  from  Massa- 
chusetts, said :  "Massachusetts  soon  became  like  a  hive  overstocked  with 
bees,  and  many  thought  of  swarming  into  other  plantations." 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  299 

strictness  of  the  Winthrop-Cotton  administration  in 
Massachusetts. 

Permission  was  rather  grudgingly  given  and  a  migra- 
tion followed,  apparently  in  three  companies.  One,  of  one 
hundred  persons,  mainly  from  Dorchester,  Mass.,  jour- 
neyed overland  in  fourteen  days  and  settled  in  Windsor. 
The  second  company,  mainly  from  Watertown,  Mass., 
probably  went  from  Boston  by  water  to  Wethersfield. 
The  third  made  their  way  overland  with  160  head  of  cattle 
"and  fed  of  their  milk  on  the  way,"  and  settled  in  Hart- 
ford. "Women  and  children  took  part  in  this  pleasant 
summer  journey  which  lasted  about  two  weeks."  Mrs. 
Hooker,  being  ill  was  carried  in  a  horse  litter  (26).  In 
the  following  year  800  people  were  living  in  these  towns 
(or  settlements),  forming  the  Colony  of  Connecticut. 

In  1638  the  town  of  New  Haven  was  founded  under 
the  leadership  of  Davenport  and  Eaton,  which  soon  be- 
came the  republic  of  New  Haven,  including  Mil  ford  and 
Stamford,  to  which  Southold  on  Long  Island  and  Bran- 
ford  were  afterwards  added  (26).  Prior  to  1640  there 
were  at  least  nine  settlements  made,  four  on  the  Connecti- 
cut River  and  five  others  on  the  shore  of  Long  Island 
Sound.  In  the  next  decade  five  others  were  made  on  the 
Sound  shore  and  one  inland.  Between  1650  and  1685 
eleven  new  settlements  were  made,  three  on  the  Connecti- 
cut River,  one  on  the  seashore  and  seven  not  on  navigable 
waters.  From  1685  to  1700  eight  settlements  were  made 
along  the  eastern  side  of  the  State  as  far  north  as  Wind- 
ham and  two  other  inland  settlements.  The  harbors  of 
New  London,  Saybrook,  New  Haven,  Stratford,  Bridge- 
port, Norwalk  and  Greenwich  were  all  occupied. 

Thus,  in  the  seventeenth  century  at  least  thirty-eight 
settlements  were  made  in  Connecticut,  eighteen  on  navi- 


300  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

gable  waters  and  twenty  inland.  Three  of  the  thirty- 
eight,  however,  were  "set  off"  from  previous  settlements. 
By  1660  practically  all  the  shore  from  the  Connecticut 
River  to  the  New  York  boundary  was  settled,  most  of  the 
Connecticut  River  border  as  far  north  as  Windsor  and  an 
area  from  New  London  north  above  Plainfield.  By  1675 
these  boundaries  were  considerably  expanded  but  shrank 
again  somewhat,  following  King  Philip's  war  and  ex- 
panded rapidly  afterwards.  In  Lois  Matthews',  "The  Ex- 
pansion of  New  England,"  (38),  this  is  very  clearly  illus- 
trated by  maps.  By  about  1732  practically  the  whole  State 
was  included  in  settlements  or  districts  claimed  by  the 
several  communities. 

Dwight,  (24,  Vol.  I)  says  that  "exclusively  of  the 
country  of  the  Pequots,*  the  inhabitants  of  Connecticut 
bought,  unless  I  am  deceived,  every  inch  of  land  contained 
within  that  colony,  of  its  native  proprietors."  The  same 
thing  was  stated  by  Governor  Winslow  in  1676  regarding 
Massachusetts  settlements  in  his  report  to  the  English 
Committee  on  Trade  and  Plantations  (26). 

This  sale  and  transfer  of  lands  from  the  Indian  chiefs 
was  effected  by  deeds  duly  signed  and  witnessed.  Thus 
in  1638  Quinnipiac,  now  New  Haven,  was  bought  of  the 
chief  Momauguin,  subject  to  certain  rights  of  hunting, 
for  one  dozen  coats,  the  same  number  of  hoes,  hatchets 
and  porringers,  two  dozen  knives  and  four  cases  of 
French  knives  and  scissors. 

A  little  later  more  land  was  bought  for  thirteen  English 
coats  (30,  Vol.  I).  The  colonists  thus  obtained  a  tract 
more  than  ten  miles  wide  from  north  to  south  and  thirteen 
long  from  east  to  west,  since  divided  into  Branford,  East 

*  The  Pequots  were  nearly  exterminated  in  the  Pequot  war  in  1637. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  301 

and  North  Haven,  Woodbridge,  Wallingford  and  Ches- 
hire, 

It  has  been  said  that  the  prices  paid,  always  in  com- 
modities, were  ridiculously  small.  Ridiculously  small  the 
price  appears  now  but  the  bargain  was  the  free  act  of  the 
chiefs  who,  we  may  believe,  considered  that  some  warm 
clothing  and  useful  tools  were  worth  more  to  them  at  the 
moment  than  130  square  miles  of  wilderness  in  which 
they  still  retained  some  rights. 

Part  of  the  later  trouble  with  the  Indians  probably 
arose  from  their  misunderstanding  of  the  nature  of  a 
deed.  In  general  they  may  have  regarded  it  as  conferring 
only  the  right  to  live,  hunt  and  fish  in  common  with  them- 
selves, not  as  in  any  way  the  extinction  of  their  own  for- 
mer rights. 

Earlier  a  fort  had  been  built  at  Saybrook,  for  defense 
against  the  Dutch,  and  a  grant  of  lands  made  under  the 
Warwick  patent  of  1631. 

This  was  bought  by  the  colony  in  1644  from  Fenwick, 
agent  of  the  proprietors.^ 

The  Connecticut  colonists,  almost  wholly  English,  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  squires  and  yeomen,  united  rather  closely 
in  thought  and  purpose.  There  were  a  few  indented  serv- 
ants or  "redemptioners"  paying  for  their  voyage  to  Amer- 
ica by  service,  who  in  time  became  independent  citizens 
and  a  few  slaves  employed  almost  wholly  in  domestic 
service  (26). 

But  it  was  a  community  holding  substantially  the  same 

5  The  seal  of  the  colony  and  later  of  the  state,  was  probably  given  to 
it,  perhaps  at  that  time,  by  Fenwick.  Originally  it  represented  a  vineyard 
of  fifteen  vines  and  above  them  a  hand,  issuing  from  clouds,  holding  a 
label  with  the  motto,  "Sustinet  qui  transtulit."  To  carry  out  the  idea  of  the 
vineyard  we  may  translate,  without  doing  more  violence  to  transtulit  than 
was  done  by  Columella  and  Varro.   "He  who  has  transplanted  maintains." 

This  seal  has  since  been  variously  modified,  as  described  in  the  Report 
of  the  State  Librarian,  for  1912. 


302  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

religious  dogmas,  the  same  political  principles  and  a  com- 
mon heritage. 

The  desire  for  religious  and  political  freedom  was  the 
chief  motive  which  drove  the  first  Pilgrims  and  Puritans 
across  the  Atlantic,  but  probably  the  greater  number  who 
followed  them  saw  in  the  vast  unoccupied  lands  of  the  new 
world  a  chance  to  make  a  living  unhindered  by  the  tur- 
moils of  Europe,  and  the  settlers  of  Connecticut,  as  we 
have  seen,  urged  as  a  reason  for  their  migration  the  need 
of  room  for  further  expansion. 

The  settlers  in  Connecticut,  as  in  New  England  gener- 
ally, with  the  exception  of  New  Hampshire,  unlike  those 
in  colonies  further  south,  were  owners  in  fee  simple  of  the 
lands  they  occupied. 

Community  of  tillage,  to  meet  their  most  pressing  want 
of  food,  had  been  tried  in  the  mother  colony  but  had  been 
found  less  effective  than  private  managment  of  personally 
owned  land. 

Individual  holdings  were  at  once  set  off,  and  for  a  good 
while  there  was  much  undivided  common  land  used  by  all 
the  proprietors  for  pasturage,  timber,  etc.,  but  there  were 
frequent  difficulties  connected  with  this  ownership  in  com- 
mon which  are  witnessed  by  frequent  acts  of  the  General 
Court.  Thus  very  early  it  was  ordered  by  the  towns  of 
Wethersfield,  Hartford  and  Windsor  that  five  able  and 
discreet  men  from  each  town  should  ''take  the  common 
lands  belonging  to  each  of  the  several  towns  into  serious 
and  sadd  consideration  and  after  a  thorough  digestion  of 
their  own  thoughts,  set  down  under  their  own  hands  in 
what  way  the  said  lands  may,  in  their  judgments,  be  best 
improved  for  the  common  good." 

The  boundaries  of  the  individual  allotments  were  not 
very  difficult  to  determine,  but  those  of  the  separate  settle- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  303 

ments  and  towns  and  of  the  colony  it  was  impossible  to 
fix  accurately  for  many  years.  (The  exact  boundary  line 
between  a  portion  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut  was 
first  finally  determined  under  Governor  Baldwin's  ad- 
ministration, 1911-1915). 

Dwight,  (24,  Vol.  II,  498)  describes  the  settlement  of 
a  dispute  regarding  land  claimed  by  both  New  London 
and  Lyme  in  1664.  The  distance,  danger  and  expense 
attending  an  appeal  to  the  seat  of  government,  decided 
the  disputants  to  settle  the  matter  by  a  combat  between 
two  champions  selected  by  each  of  them.  "On  a  day  mu- 
tually appointed,  the  champions  appeared  in  the  field ;  and 
fought  with  their  fists,  till  victory  declared  in  favor  of 
each  of  the  Lyme  combatants.  Lyme  then  took  possession 
of  the  controverted  tract  and  has  held  it  undisputed  to 
the  present  day." 

It  appears  that  either  this  dispute  was  not  finally  settled 
by  this  trial  by  combat,  or  that  some  new  boundary  dis- 
pute arose,  for  about  the  year  1671  there  was  a  "riot"  be- 
tween about  thirty  New  London  men  who  went  to  Black 
Point  to  mow  grass  for  their  minister  and  a  party  from 
Lvme  who  had  come  on  a  similar  errand.® 

There  was  a  conflict  of  tongues,  rakes,  scythes,  clubs 
and  fisticuffs ;  the  voice  of  the  constable  was  heard  in  the 
land  —  and  disregarded.  No  one  was  killed  though  some 
were  bruised.  Peacemakers  finally  prevailed  and  it  was 
agreed  to  leave  the  matter  to  the  courts.  "So  drinking  a 
dram  together  with  some  seeming  friendship,  every  man 
departed  to  his  home."  But  both  parties  were  indicted  for 
assault,  violence  and  riotous  practices.  As  it  was  difficult 
to  get  an  impartial  jury  in  that  neighborhood  the  accused 

_  8  This  land,  325  acres,  had  been  sequestered  in  1671  to  the  use  of  the 
ministry  forever  (11).  In  1668  the  same  land  had  been  reserved  by  Lyme 
for  the  support  of  their  minister. 


304  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

were  tried  in  Hartford.  Both  parties  were  fined  and  the 
fines  subsequently  remitted. 

Regarding  the  civil  government  in  the  colonies;  The 
New  Haven  Colony  was  extremely  theocratic  in  its  char- 
acter. Only  church  members  had  the  franchise  and  this  in 
New  Haven  itself  excluded  one-half  of  the  inhabitants 
from  a  share  in  the  government.  Each  town  was  governed 
by  seven  ecclesiastics,  known  as  "Pillars  of  the  Church." 
They  served  as  judges  without  juries  because  no  authority 
for  trial  by  jury  was  found  in  the  laws  of  Moses. 

The  Connecticut  Colony  was  much  less  strict  in  its 
views  of  civil  government.  In  the  first  year  it  was  gov- 
erned by  Massachusetts,  but  immediately  thereafter  a 
General  Court  was  held  in  Hartford,  May  31,  1638,  and 
on  May  14,  1639,  all  the  freemen  of  the  towns  met  in 
Hartford  and  adopted  a  written  constitution.  "It  was 
the  first  written  constitution  known  to  history,  that  cre- 
ated a  government  and  it  marked  the  beginnings  of 
American  democracy."  It  made  no  reference  to  the  king 
of  England  or  any  other  government.  Under  it  all  rights 
and  powers  not  expressly  given  to  the  General  Court 
were  reserved  to  the  towns.  It  did  not  prescribe  church 
membership  as  a  condition  for  the  right  of  suffrage.^ 

In  1643  the  four  Colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth, 
Connecticut  and  New  Haven  formed  a  league,  "The 
United  Colonies  of  New  England,"  including  thirty-nine 
towns  with  24,000  inhabitants.  The  League  was  given 
entire  control  of  dealings  with  the  Indians  and  with  for- 
eign powers  and  the  administration  was  committed  to 

■f  "The  remarkable  document,  though  deserving  all  the  encomiums  passed 
upon  it,  was  not  a  constitution  in  any  modern  sense  of  the  word  and  es- 
tablished nothing  fundamentally  new,  because  the  form  of  government  it 
outlined  differed  only  in  certain  particulars  from  that  of  Massachusetts  and 
Plymouth."  "Later  courts  never  hesitated  to  change  the  articles  without 
referring  the  changes  to  the  planters."  (3) 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  305 

eight  Federal  Commissioners,  two  from  each  colony,  all 
to  be  church  members.  No  permission  was  asked  from 
the  home  government.  In  1661  a  charter  was  granted 
by  Charles  I  to  New  Haven,  but  by  it  the  colony  was 
annexed  to  its  stronger  neighbor,  Connecticut,  thus  re- 
ducing the  number  of  the  United  Colonies  to  three. 

The  League  continued  till  1684  when  the  Massa- 
chusetts charter  was  revoked  by  Charles  11.  In  1687 
Charles  also  revoked  the  Connecticut  charter,  but  it  was 
never  surrendered,  and  as  the  order  for  the  surrender 
of  the  charter  was  never  enrolled  it  remained  in  force 
and  Connecticut  was  governed  under  it  until  1818. 

Concerning  the  relations  with  the  mother  country,  we 
see  that  the  first  settlements  were  made  in  the  reign  of 
Charles  I  who,  on  the  whole,  was  rather  glad  to  get  rid 
of  a  lot  of  religious  cranks  and  radicals  moved  to  a  wild- 
erness across  an  ocean  and  three  thousand  miles  from 
England  where  they  could  praise  God  and  fight  savages 
after  their  own  fashion.  He  was  willing  to  give  them 
charters  and  then  to  be  rid  of  them  while  he  reigned  with- 
out a  parliament  from  1649  to  1660. 

Then  followed  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Protector- 
ate when  little  thought  could  be  given  to 

"     *     *     *     that  small  colony 
Of  pinched  fanatics,  who  would  rather  choose 
Freedom  to  clip  an  inch  more  from  their  hair, 
Than  the  great  chance  of  setting  England  free." 

This  was  a  period  of  prosperity  and  undisturbed 
growth.  But  soon  after  the  accession  of  Charles  II  the 
seeds  of  disafifection  were  sown  which  resulted  in  the 
revolution  about  a  century  later. 

The  story  of  the  protection  of  the  regicides  in  New 


306  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Haven  and  elsewhere,  of  religious  differences,  of  the 
work  of  Andross  and  Randolph,  the  attempted  annulment 
of  the  charter,  etc.,  need  not  be  repeated  here. 

"The  four  years  from  1684  to  1688  were  the  darkest 
years  in  the  history  of  New  England."  (Fiske).  The 
advent  of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary  in  1689  closed 
the  long  struggle  with  the  Stuarts  and  lessened  the  ten- 
sion between  the  Colonies  and  the  mother  country. 

Such,  in  very  brief  outline,  was  the  physical  and  polit- 
ical environment  of  Colonial  agriculture  in  this  Colony  in 
the  seventeenth  century.  Before  it  was  settled  the  land 
was  a  wilderness  except  where  it  had  been  partially 
cleared  and  subdued  by  the  crude  methods  of  the  Indians. 
The  colonists'  farming  tools  were  no  ''better  than  had 
the  farmers  of  Julius  Caesar's  day;  in  fact,  the  Roman 
ploughs  were  probably  superior  to  those  in  general  use  in 
America  eighteen  centuries  later." 

"The  mass  of  production  shows  no  radical  difference 
from  that  in  ages  long  past."  (2)  "The  Saxon  farmer 
of  the  eighth  century  enjoyed  most  of  the  comforts 
known  to  Saxon  farmers  of  the  eighteenth." 

But  the  spiritual  comfort,  the  freedom  from  vassalage 
and  other  forms  of  tyranny  and  the  joy  of  self-govern- 
ment made  the  Connecticut  colonist  a  totally  different 
being  from  the  eighth  century  peasant. 

Nevertheless  the  earlier  years  were  a  fierce  struggle 
against  starvation  and  murderous  attack,  demanding  al- 
most continual  manual  labor  from  all  members  of  the 
community,  men,  women  and  children  alike. 

It  is  not  possible  now  to  give  any  very  precise  picture 
of  the  every  day  life  of  the  early  settlers  or  of  the  course 
of  their  agriculture. 

"There  is  but  a  slender  residue  from  the  vicissitudes 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  307 

o£  history  to  throw  any  sufficient  Hght  upon  some  of  the 
habits,  practices  and  daily  concerns  of  the  colonists  in  the 
ordinary  routine  of  their  existence." 

The  first  care  of  the  settlers  was  naturally  a  provision 
for  continuous  food  supply  after  the  store  of  provisions 
which  they  brought  from  Massachusetts  was  exhausted. 
Wheat/  rye  and  pease  had  been  grown  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts and  Plymouth  Colonies,  but  the  main  reliance  at 
first  was  Indian  corn.  The  reasons  are  obvious.  They 
had  abundance  of  seed,  they  knew  from  the  Indian  ex- 
perience that  it  yielded  well  and  the  method  of  planting 
and  cultivating  had  been  learned  from  the  Indians  by  the 
settlers  at  Plymouth,  "being  instructed  in  the  manner 
thereof  by  the  forenamed  Squanto."^ 

As  to  the  method  of  planting  corn,  Peters,  writing  in 
1781  says,  "Maize  is  planted  in  hillocks  three  feet  apart, 
five  kernels  and  two  pumpkin  seeds  in  a  hillock  and  be- 
tween the  hills  are  planted  ten  beans  in  a  hillock.  One 
man  plants  one  acre  a  day,  in  three  days  he  hoes  the  same 
three  times  and  six  days  more  suffice  for  plowing  and 
gathering  the  crop.  The  whole  expense  is  thirty  shillings 
and  allowing  ten  shillings  for  use  of  land,  the  whole  ex- 
pense is  two  pounds,  while  corn  is  worth  two  shillings  per 
bushel."  He  figures  that  the  gain  is  seldom  less  than  300 
and  often  600  per  cent.  "It  is  thus  that  the  poor  man  be- 
comes rich  in  a  few  years,"  —  and  it  is  thus  that  a  parson 
;figures  profits  for  the  farmer.  But  this  description  of  the 
way  of  planting  corn,  though  written  in  the  following 

8  In  the  third  generation  of  farmers  wheat  had  almost  passed  out  of 
cultivation  and  was  got  chiefly  from  New  York  and  the  southern  planta- 
tions. 

9  Squanto,  an  Indian  who  had  been  carried  to  England,  it  is  said,  by 
Waymouth,  learned  the  English  language  and  was  afterwards  returned  to 
his  native  home,  Plymouth.  He  "proved  a  special  instrument  of  God  for 
their  good,  beyond  expectation;  he  directed  them  in  planting  their  corn, 
where  to  take  their  fish  and  to  procure  their  commodities."  (42) 


308  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

century  and  by  one  to  whom  Ananias  and  Munchausen 
were  mere  tyros,  is  substantially  correct  judging  by  other 
accounts  and  was  probably  followed  from  the  beginning ; 
being  adopted  from  the  Indian  practice.   It  is  noted  in  the 

old  rhyme : 

One  for  the  bug, 
One  for  the  crow, 
One  to  rot, 
And  two  to  grow. 

At  first  fish  was  the  only  fertilizer.  Three  or  four  fish, 
(menhaden),  were  put  in  a  hill  "and  in  them  they  plant 
their  maize  which  grows  as  luxuriantly  therein  as  though 
it  were  the  best  manure  in  the  world ;  and  if  they  do  not 
lay  fish  therein  the  maize  will  not  grow,  so  that  such  is 
the  nature  of  the  soil."  (42) 

The  colonists  brought  seed  of  other  cultivated  crops 
with  them  for  in  1638  among  the  supplies  requisitioned 
for  the  force  engaged  in  the  Pequot  war  are  mentioned 
corn,  oats,  pease  and  rice,  see  page —  (63,  Vol.  I). 

The  colonists,  while  they  were  at  first  chiefly  dependent 
on  Indian  corn,  wanted  wheat  to  which  they  were  more 
accustomed  and  in  1640  (9)  it  was  ordered,  to  promote 
the  production  of  English  grain,  that  every  farmer  for 
every  team  he  owned  could  have  one  hundred  acres  of 
plow  land  and  twenty  of  meadow  if  he  seeded  twenty 
acres  the  first  year,  eighty  the  second  and  the  whole  one 
hundred  the  third. 

Of  the  gardens  of  the  early  settlers  in  New  England 
almost  the  only  account  is  that  of  John  Josselyn  in  1672. 
(32).  (Wood,  78).  These  accounts  do  not  specifically 
refer  to  Connecticut  but  probably  conditions  were  quite 
alike  in  all  the  New  England  Colonies. 

"Of  such  garden  Herbs,   (amongst  us)  as  do  thrive 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  309 

there,  Cabbage,  Lettice,  Carrats,  Parsnips  of  a  prodigious 
size,  Red  Beetes,  Radishes,  Turnips,  Wheat,'"  Barley," 
Oats,  Pease  of  all  sorts  and  the  best  in  the  world,  and 
Beans.  In  the  gardens  Josslyn  also  finds  Sorrel,  Parsley, 
Marygold,  French  Mallowes,  Burnet,  Winter  and  Summer 
Savory,  Time,  Sage,  and  —  Purslain,  (May  Allah  blot 
it  out).  Red  and  black  currants  were  grown  and  goose- 
berries "grow  all  over  the  countrie"  (31).  Coriander, 
Dill,  "annis,"  "sparagus,"  Pepper  wort,  "Tansie,"  cucum- 
bers and  melons  also  grew. 

Obviously  the  settlers  very  quickly  provided  themselves 
with  a  variety  of  vegetable  foods  and  with  "English  roses 
very  pleasantly." 

There  was  also  an  abundance  of  fruit;  plums,  wild 
cherries  and  various  berries  growing  everywhere.  Car- 
rier, (10),  quotes  Roger  Williams,  "In  some  parts  where 
the  natives  have  planted,  I  have  many  times  seen  as  many 
(strawberries)  as  would  fill  a  good  ship  within  a  few 
miles  compasse :  the  Indians  bruise  them  in  a  mortar  and. 
mix  them  with  meale  and  make  a  strawberry  bread." 

Josselyn,  in  1638-1639,  found  no  apple  or  pear  trees 
anywhere  except  on  Governor's  Island  in  Boston  harbor 
where  he  got  "half  a  score  of  very  fair  pippins."  But  on 
his  second  voyage,  thirty  years  later,  he  says  that  the 
finest  trees  prosper  abundantly,  apple,  quince,  cherry, 
plum  and  barberry  and  "the  country  is  replenished  with 
fair  and  large  orchards." 

Perhaps  the  most  particular  account  is  that  of  the  or- 
chard of  Henry  Wolcott  in  Windsor.  This  was  in  bearing 

10  Both  winter  and  summer  wheat  were  grown,  the  former  accepted  for 
taxes  at  five  shillings,  the  latter  at  four  shillings  per  bushel,  with  com  at 
two  shillings  six  pence. 

11  As  early  as  1646  barley  was  grown  in  Wethersfield,  probably  chiefly 
used  for  making  malt  for  beer,  an  article  of  general  consumption.  (64) 


310  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

before  1649.  Summer  Pippin,  Holland  Pippin,  Pearmain, 
"Belly  Bonds"  (Belle  et  Bonne),  and  London  Pippin  are 
varieties  named.  He  also  sold  orchard  trees,  both  apple 
and  pear,  as  early  as  1650.  (65).  The  price  of  apples  fell 
in  Windsor  from  eight  shillings  the  bushel  in  1650  to  two 
shillings  sixpence  to  three  shillings  in  1654. 

Josselyn  was  told  by  Wolcott  that  he  made  five  hun- 
dred hogsheads  of  "syder"  from  his  own  orchard  in  one 
year,  sold  for  ten  shillings  per  hogshead,  and  that  in 
1654  he  got  1,588  bushels  of  apples  from  his  own  orchard. 
Cider,  beer  and  other  spirituous  liquors  were  drunk  in 
large  quantities  in  the  Colony,  Cider  and  beer  were  the 
^common  table  beverages.  Tea  and  coffee  were  very  rarely 
to  be  had  before  1700  if  at  all. 

"It  has  been  truly  said  that  fruit  growing  in  America 
had  its  beginning  and  for  almost  two  hundred  years  its 
whole  sustenance  in  the  demand  for  strong  drink." 

"As  early  as  1643  there  was  a  weekly  market  in  Hart- 
ford and  many  towns  established  fairs  or  markets  held 
once  or  twice  a  year  for  the  sale  or  barter  of  all  kinds  of 
commodities. 

The  houses  of  the  early  settlers,  according  to  Hollister, 
(30),  were  of  wood  and  those  of  the  more  prosperous, 
after  the  first  thirty  years,  were  framed.  The  frames 
were  of  heavy  oak  timbers,  some  of  them  eighteen  inches 
in  diameter.  The  rafters  were  larger  than  the  sills  or 
beams  of  present  day  houses  and  supported  slit  sticks, 
.called  "ribs,"  to  which  were  fastened  long,  reft,  cedar 
shingles.  The  siding  was  of  oak  clapboards,  reft  and 
;smoothed.  Only  the  sides  of  the  rooms  were  plastered. 
The  floors  were  of  oak.  The  windows  were  of  two  small 
leaden  frames  with  diamond-shaped  panes  and  hinges 
opening  outwards.  The  outer  doors  were  of  double  oaken 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  311 

planks,  made  as  solid  as  a  single  piece  by  nails  or  spikes 
driven  into  them  in  the  angles  of  diamonds.  The  rooms 
were  seldom  over  seven  feet  high,  with  enormous  fire 
places  and  a  stone  chimney.  The  buildings  "are  generally 
of  wood,  some  of  stone  or  brick,  many  of  good  strength 
and  comelynesse,  for  a  wilderness."  (15,  III.  1680). 

Time  was  reckoned  by  farmers  according  to  the  work- 
ing seasons  as  well  as  by  the  calendar.  Events  happened 
at  "sweet  corn  time,"  "at  the  beginning  of  hog  time," 
"since  Indian  harvest,"  etc.  (3) 

The  need  of  textiles  was  early  felt.  In  1640,  (15.  pp. 
61,  64,  79),  every  family  was  required  to  get  and  plant 
at  least  one  spoonful  of  English  hemp  seed  in  good  soil, 
at  least  a  foot  between  each  seed  "and  tend  it  in  husbandly 
manner."  The  next  year  each  family  that  kept  a  team 
was  to  sow  one  rood  of  hemp  or  flax.  Every  family  which 
keeps  cows,  heifers  or  steers  was  to  sow  twenty  perches. 
Every  family  with  no  cattle  shall  sow  ten  perches  and 
tend  it  properly  and  every  family  was  to  provide  at  least 
half  a  pound  of  hemp  or  flax. 

In  1675  (15),  to  encourage  the  production  of  rape 
oil,  the  monopoly  of  its  manufacture  was  given  to  Wil- 
liam Roswell  for  ten  years. 

The  Court  gave  a  subsidy  of  two  shillings  per  acre  per 
annum  to  each  person  sowing  cole  seed  up  to  eighty  acres. 
This  was  to  continue  for  ten  years.  Tobacco  was  grown 
prior  to  1640  and  in  that  year  an  act  forbade  the  "drink- 
ing of  tobacco."  Later  a  statute  restricted  its  use  to  that 
grown  "within  these  liberties."  This  act  was  repealed 
four  years  later.  In  1680  a  duty  of  two  pence  per  pound 
was  levied  on  imported  tobacco.  In  1680,  (15,  Vol.  Ill), 
the  Colonial  authority  reports,  "Most  people  plant  as 
much  tobacco  as  they  spend."    Honey  was   raised  in 


312  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Wethersfield  as  early  as  1648.  In  1650  an  inventory  in- 
cludes "11  skipp  of  bees,"  valued  at  nine  pounds,  (40,  p. 
622). 

The  colonists  very  quickly  supplied  themselves  with 
cereals  and  vegetables.  Naturally  to  get  an  adequate  sup- 
ply of  live  stock  required  much  more  time.  The  first  set- 
tlers from  Massachusetts  brought  with  them  one  hundred 
and  sixty  head  of  live  stock  and  later  settlers  no  doubt 
brought  many  more.  Wild  hogs  are  mentioned  in  the 
early  records  which  may  have  been  relics  of  the  first  ad- 
venture to  Windsor  in  1633  to  1635.  Breeding  naturally 
increased  the  number  of  swine  more  quickly  than  of 
dairy  stock  and  as  early  as  1637  pork  was  one  of  the  sup- 
plies furnished  to  the  force  which  fought  the  Pequots. 

The  keeping  of  dairy  stock,  sheep  and  horses  was  handi- 
capped by  the  scarcity  of  good  hay  land  and  pasture. 
Eliot  notes,  (25),  that  the  first  settlers  by  tide  water  had 
so  much  salt  marsh  mowing  that  they  improved  the  land 
nearest  at  hand  and  when,  with  growing  population  more 
was  needed  for  meadow  they  made  use  of  old  land  without 
breaking  up  more. 

Salt  marsh  is  neither  good  pasture  nor  is  its  hay  the 
most  suitable  for  feed.  Of  the  meadow  and  pasture 
grasses  at  present  used  in  Connecticut  all,  with  possibly 
one  or  two  exceptions  are  introduced  species  (10).  To 
establish  good  mow  land  or  even  good  pasture  in  a  new 
country,  having  only  rather  inferior  herbage,  was  a  work 
of  considerable  time.  Even  in  Eliot's  time  good  hay  was 
scarce. 

In  the  revision  of  the  Colony  laws  in  1672  to  1673  an 
act  required  every  male  between  forty  and  seventy,  fit 
for  labor,  excepting  certain. magistrates  or  ruling  elders, 
physicians  and  school  teachers,  to  work  for  one  day  in 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  313 

June,  cutting  and  clearing  land  as  directed  by  the  selectmen 
for  the  encouraging  of  sheep  raising.  Nine  years  later 
the  law  was  modified,  authorizing  the  townsmen  to  call 
forth  their  inhabitants  at  such  time  as  they  think  best  to 
kill  the  brush. 

Before  considering  what  was  wrought  by  this  colony 
of  farmers  in  the  first  sixty  or  seventy  years  of  their 
struggle  with  the  wilderness  there  should  be  noticed  in 
particular  some  of  the  hindrances  and  obstacles  to  prog- 
ress which  had  to  be  overcome. 

As  has  been  said  their  field  and  garden  tools,  either 
brought  from  England  or  else  made  on  the  same  pattern 
at  home,  were  of  the  simplest  sort ;  none  of  them,  except 
a  clumsy  plow,  of  a  kind  to  use  with  draft  animals.  Sow- 
ing, cultivating  and  harvesting  were  all  done  by  hand. 

Their  farming  tools,  moreover,  were  of  a  kind  designed 
for  tilling  soil  long  under  cultivation,  not  for  subduing 
forest  land  or  scrub  growth. 

Though  at  first,  as  a  rule,  the  Indians  were  not  very 
unfriendly  to  the  colonists,  their  attitude  soon  changed. 
The  pushing  of  settlements  inland  incommoded  the  In- 
dians. They  had  further  embarrassed  themselves  by  part- 
ing with  much  of  their  cleared  land  and  these  things,  to- 
gether with  their  innate  joy  of  plunder,  murder  and  tor- 
ture soon  made  them  a  menace  to  the  settlers.  Robbery 
and  murder  became  frequent. 

The  Connecticut  settlements  were  chiefly  harassed  by 
the  Pequots  and  in  May,  1637  an  expedition  left  Saybrook 
and  near  Groton  met  the  Pequots  in  their  fortified  place 
and  after  a  severe  fight  killed  nearly  seven  hundred  of 
them,  only  five  escaping  alive  (26). 

But  another  account  says  that  in  the  Pequot  fight  at 
''Mistick"  at  daybreak  they  took  the  fort  after  two  hours' 


%'  A  r, 


314  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

fighting,  by  firing  it,  slew  the  two  chief  sachems,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  fighting  men  and  one  hundred  and  fifty 
old  men,  women  and  children,  with  the  loss  of  two 
Englishmen.  (65). 

Hon.  John  H.  Perry,  in  a  paper  on  "The  Great  Swamp 
Fight  in  Fairfield"  states  that  the  remnant  of  the  Pequot 
nation  immediately  started  to  migrate  to  the  Hudson  and 
passing  westward  was  overtaken  and  besieged  in  a  swamp 
in  Fairfield.  There  were  eighty  strong  men  with  two 
hundred  women  and  children.  Loath  to  destroy  the  women 
and  children,  under  a  truce  two  hundred  old  men,  women 
and  children  were  allowed  to  come  out  and  surrender. 
After  a  fight,  not  very  sanguinary,  about  sixty  or  seventy 
Indians  broke  through  and  escaped.  This  ended  all 
trouble  with  the  Pequots. 

After  this  there  was  no  further  organized  fighting 
with  the  Indians  for  thirty-eight  years. 

The  expedition  from  Saybrook  was  provisioned  from 
the  various  Connecticut  settlements  and  commanded  by 
Captain  John  Mason  who  reports,  (5),  "Our  commons 
were  very  short,  there  being  a  general  scarcity  throughout 
the  colony  of  all  sorts  of  provisions"  —  "we  had  but  one 
pint  of  strong  liquors  among  us  in  our  whole  march"  — 
"(the  bottle  of  liquor  being  in  my  hand)  and  when  it  was 
empty  the  very  smelling  to  the  bottle  would  recover  such 
as  had  fainted  away,  which  happened  by  the  extremity  of 
the  heat." 

In  spite  of  this  victory,  individual  cases  of  robbery  and 
murder  were  not  infrequent  and  the  farmer  needed  to 
keep  his  weapons  constantly  ready  for  use.  As  when  Ne- 
hemiah  rebuilt  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  "Every  one  of 
them  with  one  of  his  hands  wrought  in  the  work  and  with 
the  other  hand  held  a  weapon."  In  1643  it  was  noted  that 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  315 

"The  order  for  one  in  each  family  to  bring  his  arms  to 
the  meeting  house  every  Sabbath  hath  not  been  fully  at- 
tended to." 

King  Phillip's  war  began  in  1674  and  in  this  the  Narra- 
gansetts  joined. 

The  Great  Swamp  Fight,  near  Kingston,  Rhode  Island 
decisively  defeated  the  Indians  but  in  1676  Philip  was 
again  on  the  war  path  and  there  were  massacres  in  Massa- 
,chusetts  and  Rhode  Island;  but  in  June,  in  a  series  of 
fights,  three  or  four  hundred  of  the  Narragansetts  were 
killed  and  later  in  the  year  Philip  himself  was  hunted 
down  and  killed.  By  1688  the  Indians  were  generally  sup- 
pressed (26).  But  Dwight  (24,  Vol.  I),  states  that  with 
the  Indians  the  colonists  had  to  contend  from  1675  till 
1783  and  within  this  period  there  were  seven  wars  with 
them;  five  stimulated  by  the  French,  King  Philip's  war 
and  the  revolution. 

In  King  Philip's  war  little  damage  was  done  in  this 
state  but  its  armed  forces  were  used  in  defending  other 
regions  from  the  common  enemy. 

Besides  the  threat  from  the  Indians,  wild  animals  were 
a  great  annoyance  and  did  much  damage  so  that  bounties 
were  almost  continually  offered  for  their  destruction.  In 
Windsor  in  1647,  (5),  a  panther  killed  nine  sheep  in  a 
yard.  He  was  tracked  and  killed  for  which  a  bounty  of 
five  pounds  was  paid  as  allowed  by  law.  Wolves  were  the 
most  common  and  persistent  pests.  From  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  century  bounties  were  paid  for  their  de- 
struction ranging  from  eight  to  thirty-two  shillings  per 
head.  In  1640  by  the  town  of  Hartford  *Tt  is  ordered  yt 
Learance  Woodward  shall  spend  his  Time  abought  kil- 
ling of  wolf es  &  for  his  Incoragmentt  he  shall  have  4s  6d 
a  weeke  for  his  bord  in  casse  he  kill  not  a  wolfe  or  a 


316  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

deare  in  ye  weake ;  but  if  he  kill  a  wolf  or  a  deare  he  is  to 
pay  for  his  bord  himselfe  &  if  he  kill  a  deare  we  are  to 
Have  it  for  2d  a  pound,"  (14,  VI).  (Fearlessly  this 
scribe  flouts  all  old  world  traditions  in  matters  of  orthog- 
raphy and  blazes  a  new  way  for  the  speller,  with  the 
freedom  of  the  new  world,  to  the  joy  of  his  readers  in  all 
generations.) 

In  1693  Stratford  voted  a  wolf  hunt,  with  a  bounty  of 
three  shillings  per  day  for  horse  and  man.  A  day  was 
set,  all  to  be  ready  at  seven  A.  M.  on  the  hill  at  the  meet- 
ing house  by  the  beat  of  the  drum.  No  record  is  given  of 
the  killing  (49,  p.  289). 

Blackbirds  were  also  a  nuisance  and  a  bounty  of  ten 
shillings  per  thousand  was  paid  for  their  destruction. 
Even  flocks  of  wild  pigeons  were  destructive  to  grain. 

As  early  as  1644  wheat  blasted  in  Connecticut  and  New 
Haven,  (75,  I.  ),  and  in  1679,  (15,  III.),  there  is  com- 
plaint made  of  "an  unaccountable  blast  on  wheat  and 
pease."  Later  in  an  election  sermon,  (15,  III.),  reference 
is  made  to  God's  smiting  with  "blasts,  mildews,  cater- 
pillars, worms,  tares,  floods  and  droughts." 

In  a  report  by  the  Governor  to  the  British  Committee 
for  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations,  he  says:  "Besides 
for  sundry  years  past  the  holy  providence  of  God  hath 
smitten  us  year  after  yeare  &  these  three  or  four  yeares 
past  there  is  a  worm  breads  in  sd.  pease  which  doth  much 
damnify  them  so  that  we  are  like,  (by  reason  of  said 
losses  at  home  and  the  heightened  price  of  goods  from 
abroad),  to  remain  a  poor  but  loyal  people." 

There  were  besides,  the  usual  vagaries  of  weather  and 
miscalculation  of  the  crops  most  needed,  which  caused 
serious  discomfort. 

In  1637  there  was  scarcity  of  corn  due  to  Indian  dis- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  317 

turbances  and  the  absence  of  men  engaged  in  the  Indian 
war.  The  colonists  were  forced  to  buy  corn  of  the  In- 
dians in  Massachusetts.  Corn  rose  to  twelve  shillings 
per  bushel,  but  fifty  canoes  came  down  later  from  Deer- 
field,  Mass.,  which  gave  great  relief.  Again  in  1638, 
(15,  I.),  it  was  necessary  to  import  corn  which  it  was 
ordered  to  "goe"  at  five  shillings  six-pence  in  money,  in 
wampums  at  three  a  penny,  six  shillings  per  bushel,  or 
in  beaver  at  nine  shillings  per  pound. 

In  1643  Winthrop  reports  that  corn  was  very  scarce 
all  over  the  country  because  of  a  cold,  wet  season,  ravages 
of  pigeons  and  mice  in  the  barns.  The  mice  also  damaged 
orchards  by  girdling  the  trees. 

But  the  next  year  there  was  a  glut  of  corn,  prices  fell 
and  the  growers  were  forbidden  by  the  General  Court  to 
sell  ''out  of  the  river"  except  to  two  agents  who  were  to 
pay  four  shillings  per  bushel  for  wheat  and  three  for  corn 
and  rye  and  who  undertake  to  transport  it  over  seas. 
This  overproduction  may  have  been  due,  in  part  at  least, 
to  the  extraordinary  bounty  offered  in  1640.  The  mer- 
chants are  to  pay  on  the  return  of  the  ship  or  as  soon  as 
return  may  be  otherwise  made  in  the  best  and  most 
suitable  English  commodities.  Subsequent  lawsuits  prove 
the  failure  of  the  scheme.  This  was  the  end  of  the  first 
"pool,"  undertaken  to  foil  the  "middleman"  and  by  gov- 
ernment action  to  sustain  prices  in  a  time  of  over-produc- 
tion. 

In  1662  it  was  forbidden  to  convey  away  out  of  this 
river  any  corn  or  provision  from  any  plantation  on  this 
river.  1675  was  another  lean  year  as  far  as  the  staple 
corn  was  concerned.  The  Colony,  in  reply  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts authorities,  say  they  will  supply  what  provision 
for  the  army  as  they  can,  "but  corn  being  very  scarce  with 


318  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

us  and  the  seat  of  war  within  our  borders,  we  cannot  do 
all  that  is  desired." 

Regarding  the  population  of  Connecticut  in  this  century 
we  have  no  exact  figures.  The  most  reliable  estimate  is 
as  follows  (72,  p.  9)  : 

In  1640    2,000  1680  13,000 

1650    6,000  1690  18,000 

1660    8,000  1700  24,000 
1670  10,000 

"We  compute  the  Indian  neighbors  of  this  Colony  to 
be  about  500  fighting  men"  (1680).  At  this  time  there 
were  not  above  thirty  slaves  in  the  Colony. 

In  a  community  without  extensive  trade  or  business 
relations  with  other  sections  of  the  country,  a  community 
almost  exclusively  engaged  in  tilling  the  land  and  business 
immediately  concerned  with  it,  current  money  was  scarce. 
We  find  therefore  in  the  records  of  the  General  Court  and 
of  town  governments  schedules  of  rates  at  which  country 
produce  might  be  used  for  payment  of  a  part  (often  one- 
third)  of  taxes. 

Thus  the  highest  exchange  price  for  winter  wheat  was 
five  shillings  per  bushel,  in  1677  and  1698.  The  lowest 
was  four  shillings  in  1653. 

Corn  exchange  prices  ranged  from  two  to  four  shill- 
ings, rye  and  pease  from  two  to  three  shillings  sixpence 
per  bushel  (15,  III).  Apples  were  quoted  in  1653  at  two 
and  a  half  to  three  shillings  per  bushel. 

It  remains  to  consider  the  condition  of  agriculture  in 
the  Colony  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The 
condition  of  agriculture  was  the  condition  of  the  Colon>, 
for  while  the  settlers  on  the  sea  and  river  coasts  began 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  319 

trading  and  commerce/^  yet  agriculture,  with  lumbering, 
stock  raising  and  dairying  as  the  chief  business  aside 
from  tillage  crops  was  the  almost  universal  employment. 

The  State  was  secured  against  the  Indians  and  was  in- 
creasing in  population  and  the  area  of  tilled  land.  There 
is  no  evidence  of  an  improvement  in  the  farming  tools 
used.  The  food  crops  and  the  vegetables  of  England  were 
raised  with  success  and  productive  orchards  had  been 
established.  The  quality  of  the  meadows  and  pastures 
was  very  poor,  there  being  no  meadow  grasses  which 
were  well  suited  for  dairy  stock. 

Governor  Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  writes  in  1660 
to  an  English  correspondent  (37,  VIII),  "Now  the  coun- 
try doth  send  out  great  store  of  biscott,  flower,  peas, 
beife,  butter  and  other  provisions  to  the  supply  of  Bar- 
bados, Newfoundland  and  other  places,  ate."  "This 
country  is  now  well  stored  with  horses,  cowes,  shepe  and 
goates."  No  doubt  the  production  and  commerce  of  the 
older  Colony  was  much  larger  than  that  of  Connecticut 
but  Connecticut  shared  in  the  general  prosperity  of  the 
New  England  Colonies. 

In  the  same  year  Maverick  (cited  by  Whedon,  75), 
says,  "For  the  southern  part  it  is  incredible  what  has  been 
done  there."  "All  through  the  land  there  was  plenty  of 
pears,  apples  and  other  fruit,  muskmelons,  watermelons, 
etc." 

A  fair  idea  of  the  progress  of  agriculture  may  be 
gleaned  from  the  report  of  the  Governor  of  the  British 
Committee  on  Trade  and  Foreign  Plantations  in  1680. 
He  states  that  the  commodities  of  the  country  are  peas, 
rye,  barley,  Indian  corn  and  pork,  beef,  wool,  hemp,  flax, 

12  In  1680  there  were  27  vessels  owned  in  the  state,  the  largest  of  90 
tons,  with  a  total  tonnage  of  1,030  engaged  in  trade  from  river  and  coast 
.ports. 


320  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

cider,  perry  and  tar;  deal  boards,  pipe  staves,  horses. 
What  was  produced  above  the  local  demand  was  mostly 
transported  to  Boston  and  there  bartered  for  clothing, 
though  some  small  quantity  was  shipped  to  Barbados, 
Jamaica  and  other  of  the  West  Indies  and  there  bartered 
for  sugar,  cotton  and  rum.  For  material  for  shipping 
there  is  good  timber  of  oak,  pine  and  spruce  for  masts, 
oak  and  pine  boards,  tar,  pitch  and  hemp.  "We  are  but 
a  poor  people,  we  have  lost  and  spent  much  of  said  estates 
in  the  last  Indian  war.  Said  expense  with  our  loss  cannot 
be  estimated  less  than  30,000  pounds  and  no  other  ad- 
vantage gained  by  it  than  the  riddance  of  some  of  our 
bad  neighbors  .  .  .  For  the  most  part  we  labor  in  tilling 
the  ground  and  by  that  time  a  year's  .  .  .  and  labor  hath 
gathered  some  small  parcel  of  provision  and  it  is  trans- 
ported to  the  market  at  Boston  and  then  half  a  crown 
will  not  produce  so  much  goods  of  any  sort  as  ten  pence 
within  England." 

"We  cannot  guess  as  to  the  number  of  acres  unsettled. 
Most  that  is  fitt  for  planting  is  taken  up.  What  remaynes 
must  be  subdued  and  gained  out  of  the  fire  as  it  were,  by 
hard  blowes  and  for  smal  recompense"  (15,  Vol,  III). 

The  history  of  agriculture  in  Connecticut  would  not  be 
quite  complete  without  this  note.  In  1644  "The  proposi- 
tion for  the  releife  of  poore  schollars  att  Cambridg  was 
fully  approved  of,  and  thereupon  it  was  ordered,  thatt 
Josua  Attwater  and  William  Davis  shall  receive  of  every 
one  in  this  plantation  whose  hart  is  willing  to  contribute 
thereunto  a  peck  of  wheat  or  the  value  of  itt."  In  1645 
Mr.  Attwater  reported  that  he  had  sent  from  Connecticut 
forty  bushels  of  wheat  for  the  college  at  Cambridge 
although  he  had  not  received  so  much.  In  1647  "The 
Governor  propounded  that  the  Colledge  corne  mi^ht  be 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  321 

forthwith  paid  —  it  will  be  a  reproach  that  it  shall  be 
said  New  Haven  is  falne  off  from  this  service." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  attitude  of  the  legislative 
body  towards  tobacco  and  alcoholic  beverages  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  and  to  compare  it 
with  the  attitude  at  the  present  time. 

Tobacco  was  grown  in  the  Colony  as  early  as  1644, 
rum  was  imported  from  the  West  Indies  and  later  made 
in  the  State  from  the  juice  of  cornstalks,  though  never  to 
any  great  extent.  Intoxicants  were  freely  used  in  the 
community  by  clergymen  and  all  classes  of  their  parish- 
ioners. President  Stiles  of  Yale  College  enumerates 
among  the  wonderful  orderings  of  divine  Providence 
which  conspire  towards  the  establishing  of  the  indepen- 
dence of  America,  "Heaven  has  led  us  to  the  successful 
experiment  on  corn  stalks  from  whence  it  is  probable  may 
be  made  an  abundant  supply  of  molasses  and  rum  for  this 
whole  continent."  Cider  was  a  common  beverage  in  the 
family  and  was  not  by  any  means  a  spiritless  drink. 
Licenses  were  required  for  selling  strong  liquors  and 
the  maximum  prices  were  fixed  by  statute  (15,  IV). 

Captain  John  Mason,  as  we  have  seen,  found  use  for 
strong  liquor  in  the  Pequot  War.  In  1780  Congress  called 
for  army  supplies  from  this  state  and  among  them  were 
named  68,558  gallons  of  rum. 

But  tobacco,  so  vigorously  condemned  by  that  miso- 
capnic  sovereign,  James  I,  in  his  Counterblaste  of 
Tobacco,  was  barred  by  the  Colony. 

In  1647  it  was  ordered  that  no  one  shall  take  tobacco 
publicly  on  the  street  or  in  fields  or  woods  unless  wher  he 
is  on  a  journey  of  at  least  ten  miles,  or  at  the  time  of 
repast  commonly  called  dinner,  or  if  not  taken  then,  not 
above  once  a  day  at  most,  and  then  not  in  company  with 


322  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

any  other.  By  the  code  of  1650  persons  under  twenty-one 
and  all  others  not  already  accustomed  to  it  were  forbid- 
den to  use  the  weed  without  a  physician's  certificate.  No 
one  could  publicly  use  tobacco  on  streets,  highways,  in 
barns,  or  on  training  days  in  any  public  place.  There 
was  however  a  gradual  decline  in  tobacco  morals  for  in 
1680  its  use  was  restricted  to  that  grown  in  the  Colony 
and  in  the  next  century  tobacco  became  a  considerable 
article  of  export  and  inspectors  were  appointed  to  see  that 
only  merchantable  tobacco  was  sold. 

In  the  twentieth  century  the  pendulum  which  marks 
the  effort  to  promote  temperance  in  individuals  by  legisla- 
tive acts  has  swung  to  the  other  extreme.  Tobacco  is  used 
everywhere  by  clergymen,  physicians  and  all  classes  in 
the  community,  both  men  and  women,  but  the  making, 
selling  or  carrying  of  any  alcoholic  beverage  or  bringing 
it  within  one  hour's  steaming  distance  of 

"     *     *     *     thee, 
Sweet  land  of  Liberty" 

is  contrary  to  the  Constitution  and  statute  and  punishable 
by  fine  and  imprisonment. 

It  would  seem  that  the  pendulum  could  hardly  swing 
further  in  either  direction  and  may  come  back  to  the  re- 
gion of  temperance  in  habits,  legislation  and  language. 

Agriculture  in  the  Eighteenth  Century 
This  period  witnessed  great  changes  in  Connecticut,, 
political,  religious  and  economic. 

The  danger  of  extermination  by  Indians  was  wholly 
past.  They  continued  for  some  time  to  be  a  plague,  in- 
clined  to   plunder,   but  in'  1763   the   Governor   reports 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  323 

(Appendix  to  the  Public  Records),  that  the  Indians  are 
"in  peace,  good  order  and  inclined  to  idleness." 

Nor  was  the  Colony  any  longer  threatened  by  a  very 
dangerous  lack  of  food. 

Trade  increased  and  manufacturing  began  on  a  mod- 
erate scale. 

As  late  as  1790  it  is  probable  (72)  that  nine  out  of 
every  ten  bread  winners  in  the  State  were  engaged  in  some 
form  of  agriculture.  A  century  later  only  three  out  of 
ten.  At  the  close  of  this  century  ninety-eight  out  of  every 
one  hundred  of  the  New  England  population  could  trace 
their  origin  to  England  in  the  narrowest  sense. 

The  following  figures  of  population  in  Connecticut 

(72)  "may  be  accepted  as  expressing  the  best  judgment 

of  students  of  history  and  statistics  at  the  present  time" 

(1909). 

In  1700  24.000  1750  100,000 

1710  31,000  1760  142,000 

1720  40,000  1770  175,000 

1730  55,000  1780  203,000 

1740  70,000  1790  237,635 

Up  to  the  Revolutionary  period  there  was  an  average 
increase  of  about  33  per  cent  in  each  succeeding  decade. 
From  1770  to  1790  the  increase  per  decade  averaged  only 
about  18  per  cent.  This  increase,  reports  the  Governor, 
"Under  the  Divine  benediction  we  attribute  to  indus- 
trious, temperate  life  and  early  marriage." 

In  1713  two-thirds  of  the  area  of  the  State  was  settled, 
and  by  1754  the  whole  State  was  occupied. 

The  housing  of  the  colonists  became  more  substantial. 
Brick  w^as  more  often  used  in  building.  As  late  as  1770 
brick  was  imported  from  England  and  Holland,  perhaps 
as  ballast.    But  most  bricks  in  Colonial  buildings  were 


324  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

made  at  home.    (As  early  as  1639  the  Henry  Whitfield 
house  in  Guilford  was  built  of  stone  and  is  still  standing.) 
The  household  in  New  England  generally  was  a  self- 
sustaining  unit. 

There  was  little  care  for  ornament  or  design.  In  the 
first  half  of  the  century,  at  least,  the  household  furniture 
was  likely  to  include  shoemaker's  tools,  leather  tanned  in 
the  neighborhood,  surgeon's  tools  and  apothecary's  stuff, 
occasionally  carpenter's  and  blacksmith's  tools,  and  a 
cider  press.  A  spinning  wheel  was  almost  always  in 
the  house  and  often  a  loom.  The  wood  turner  made 
plates,  etc.,  from  "dish  timber,"  probably  poplar  or 
linden  (10). 

At  this  time  "through  New  England  men,  women  and 
children  wore  homespun;  linen  shirts,  tow  cloth  skirts 
and  breeches  and  woolen  socks.  Buckskin  and  lambs  skin 
breeches  were  common."  Coats  for  heavy  weather  were 
made  of  deerskin.  These  statements  represent  conditions 
in  the  first  half  of  the  century  among  even  well-to-do 
farmers  throughout  the  Colony.  There  was,  of  course,  a 
small  fraction  of  the  people,  living  near  centers  of  inter- 
course and  trade  whose  houses  and  dress  were  more 
elaborate  and  the  dress  of  all  classes  gradually  improved 
in  material  later  in  the  century. 

Cereals  and  meats  of  all  kinds  were  abuuvdant  but  there 
was  no  means  of  keeping  either  meat  or  vegetables  in 
fresh  condition.  Many  families  lived  through  the  winter 
on  smoked,  salted  and  pickled  food.  But  milk,  butter  and 
cheese  were  available.  Fruit,  such  as  apples,  could  be  kept 
well  into  winter.  Housewives  pickled  Indian  corn  and 
other  vegetables,  nuts  and  oysters,  they  dried  apples  and 
made  "apple  butter."  Beer,  cider,  brandy  and  rum  were 
the  ordinary  beverages. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  325 

Beer  was  brewed  at  home  and  spruce  beer  was  used  at 
sea  against  scurvy  (4). 

From  1715  to  1750  a  great  change  came  over  the 
Colonies.  *'No  war,  no  constant  danger  from  the  French 
or  Indians,  no  menace  to  shipping  on  the  seas."  Hanover- 
ians came  to  the  EngHsh  throne  and  there  followed  what 
Burke  called  "a  wise  and  salutary  neglect."  "The  home 
government  giving  up  the  idea  of  rigidly  carrying  out 
the  laws  of  navigation  and  trade,  offered  a  generous 
nature  to  take  her  own  way  to  perfection." 

Thus  the  colonists  entered  on  an  era  of  progress  and 
consequent  prosperity. 

The  clearing  of  land,  raising  food,  producing  clothing, 
with  the  establishment  of  commerce,  by  which  some 
necessities  and  comforts  were  provided  which  it  was  not 
possible  to  make  at  home,  were  practically  the  whole  busi- 
ness of  the  inhabitants,  until  the  final  struggle  for  inde- 
pendence in  1776,  when  a  seven  years'  war  and  six  years 
or  more  of  labor  in  organizing  and  establishing  a  civil 
government  left  little  time  or  thought  for  improvement 
in  the  methods  or  tools  of  agriculture  which  marked  the 
next  century. 

The  only  plow  in  use,  up  to  the  nineteenth  century  was 
an  unwieldy,  heavy,  wooden  affair.  The  harrow  was 
wooden,  with  wooden  pegs  (45).  The  farm  tools  were 
made  locally;  rakes,  forks,  axe  helves,  shovels  with 
wrought  iron  edges,  flails,  baskets  and  yokes,  cheese 
presses,  bowls  and  paddles  (53), 

The  means  of  transportation  were,  of  course,  very 
limited.  Carts  with  one  or  two  horses  were  used  on  the 
farm,  but  oxen  were  preferred  for  the  heavier  work. 

Pleasure  carriages  were  first  seen  in  Middlesex  County 
about  1750  (16),  and  in  Litchfield  in  1776  and  there 


326  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

were  few  there  until  after  the  Revolutionary  War.  In 
1761  there  were  only  four  "chaises"  in  New  Haven. 

New  England  soon  became  a  network  of  roads  and 
highways,  with  main  routes  connecting  important  towns, 
country  roads  and  lanes,  pent  roads  and  private  ways 
leading  to  outlying  sections  (4). 

Connecticut  roads  had  a  bad  reputation.  There  were 
few  bridges,  troublesome  ferries  and  much  soft  and 
rocky  ground.  They  were  referred  to  by  travellers  as 
"most  miserable"  and  "most  intolerable." 

These  conditions  were  considerably  improved  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  century  and  bridges  over  the  larger 
rivers  were  more  common.  As  roads  are  the  subject  of 
another  paper  in  this  volume  no  further  notice  of  them  is 
needed  here. 

As  to  the  principal  crops  raised  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury: 

Indian  corn  continued  to  be  the  chief  staple  crop  both 
for  family  use  and  for  stock  feed.  Eliot  raised  60  to  70 
bushels  to  the  acre  and  the  following  year  90  bushels.  The 
Rev.  Peters  (52),  says  40  to  sixty  bushels  are  raised  on 
even  land;  30  to  40  on  hilly  land,  but  this  latter  weighs 
13  pounds  to  the  bushel  more  than  that  raised  on  river 
land.  Dwight,  writing  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  (24,  Vol.  I),  says  the  average  yield  of  corn  is 
25  bushels  but  he  has  seen  crops  of  118  bushels. 

It  was  hoped  to  make  the  stalks  available  for  the  man- 
ufacture of  molasses.  Stiles  notes  (62),  "This  is  done 
with  only  the  Topping  of  the  corn  without  damaging  the 
Ear  or  Grain.  In  old  York,  8  M.  from  Portsmo.  are 
erected  last  week  two  Mills  consisting  of  three  plane 
Wooden  Cylinders  with  the  Improvement  of  Cogs  atop. 
In  these  Mills  they  have  already  made  considerable  Mo- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  327 

lasses  from  Corn  Tops  and  some  of  the  Molasses  has  been 
distilled  into  good  Rum.  It  is  said  that  the  Produce  is  at 
the  rate  of  two  Bbls.  Molasses  to  an  acre  of  Corn."  ''At 
Dr.  Gales  in  Killingworth,  As  I  had  first  tasted  good  Mo- 
lasses, 21st.  Oct.  at  Greenfld  made  of  Cornstalks,  so  here 
Dr.  Gale  first  showed  me  Spirits  made  of  the  Juice  which 
I  tasted  and  also  saw  it  sink  Oyl."  (62,  Vol.  II).  And 
later  on,  "At  Middletown  ten  thousand  gallons  of  stalk 
juice  were  delivered  in  this  fall  to  one  distillery  which 
distilled  near  a  thousand  gallons  of  good  rum." 

The  business  began  much  earlier  in  the  century.  In 
1717  (75,  Vol.  II),  the  General  Court  granted  the  sole 
right  to  make  molasses  from  Indian  corn  to  Edward  Hin- 
man  of  Stratford.  It  does  not  appear  that  this  business 
ever  became  extensive. 

Wheat  was  considerably  grown  until  the  appearance  of 
the  Hessian  fly  when  wheat  growing  was  nearly  aban- 
doned. There  were  few  varieties  grown  of  both  summer 
and  winter  kinds.  "But  corn  is  very  much  the  staple  and 
a  scarcity  of  it  affects  the  country  more  than  a  failure  of 
wheat." 

Dwight,  (24,  Vol.  I),  says  that  the  Hessian  fly  first 
appeared  in  New  England  in  1787,  entering  Fairfield  Co. 
and  advancing  about  twenty  miles  a  year.  Peters  says 
that  wheat  generally  yields  from  20  to  30  bushels  per 
acre  (52).  Dwight  puts  the  average  production  at  15 
bushels  though  he  has  known  of  40  bushels  per  acre. 

Rye  and  barley  were  also  grown. 

Regarding  forage,  Eliot,  in  1749,  (25,  Vol.  II),  com- 
plains of  the  scarcity  of  hay  and  corn  which  is  increasing. 
The  stock  of  the  country  has  outgrown  the  meadows  so 
that  the  high  price  of  hay  limits  the  live  stock.  In  a  hard 
winter  the  scarcity  of  hay  must  be  made  up  with  corn 


328  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

and  rather  than  lose  cattle  the  farmers  pinch  their  fami- 
lies. 

He  mentions  only  two  grasses  native  to  the  country, 
Herd's  grass  or  timothy  and  Foul  Meadow  grass,  which 
he  pronounces  to  be  much  the  best  of  the  two.  The  seed 
of  these  and  of  clover  could  be  bought  in  market  in  1765.. 
The  lack  of  good  meadow  both  for  pasture  and  hay  con- 
tinued till  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
"Agricola,"  writing  to  the  Connecticut  Courant,  March 
3,  1784,  says:  ''The  parching  heats  to  which  this  country 
is  exposed  often  occasions  a  want  of  summer  pasture  as 
well  as  winter  fodder.  It  is  therefore  of  the  utmost  mo- 
ment that  the  American  cultivators  should  be  informed 
that  artificial  meadows  constitute  one-half  of  the  rural 
riches  of  Europe."  He  states  that  any  farmers  who  wish 
to  experiment  in  the  matter  may  get  the  seed  from  Nor- 
mandy by  applying  to  the  French  consul's  office  for  which 
the  only  charges  will  be  its  purchase  price  in  Normandy 
with  land  carriage  from  Caen  to  Port  I'Orient.  This  is 
made  possible  by  the  generosity  of  His  Most  Christian 
Majesty,  the  King  of  France.  He  then  discusses  the 
merits  of  clover,  sain  foin,  lucerne,  (alfalfa),  and  Hy- 
vernage,  a  species  of  winter  vetch. 

The  time  of  the  introduction  of  potatoes  seems  to  be 
somewhat  uncertain,  probably  between  1705  and  1750 
(10).  Andrews  states,  (4),  that  they  were  not  intro- 
duced until  after  the  advent  of  the  Scotch-Irish  in  1720, 
and  they  did  not  for  some  time  become  a  common  vege- 
table. 

A  few  appear,  probably  as  a  curiosity,  at  a  Harvard 
dinner  in  1708  (75).  Trumbull  gives  the  date  of  their 
introduction  into  Connecticut  as  1720  (70,  Vol.  I).  They 
were  first  seen  in  Windsor' in  1760  (65).  and  were  little 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  329 

used  there  till  after  the  revolution;  (53),  but  a  corres- 
pondent in  Saybrook  writes  to  President  Stiles  in  1767, 
(61,  p.  463),  "We  improve  in  potatoes  in  this  colony  ex- 
ceedingly. Many  farmers  raise  500  (bushels)  per  An. 
T  don't  think  myself  stored  without  150  bushels  per  An. 
They  make  butter  and  beef  and  store  excellently  well." 

Wethersfield  is  the  traditional  home  of  the  onion  and 
there  is  record,  (64),  of  their  being  an  article  of  trade  as 
early  as  1710.  Later  large  quantities  were  raised  here  and 
shipped  to  New  York. 

In  1780  Wethersfield  citizens  protested  against  an  act 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  which  forbade  ship- 
ment or  sale  of  produce  outside  the  State.  Anticipating  a 
great  demand  Wethersfield  had  raised  more  onions  than 
ever  and  many  more  than  the  army  and  navy  could  use, 
and  the  excess  they  could  neither  sell  nor  barter  for  the 
selling  to  army  and  navy  had  to  be  done  through  an  agent 
of  the  government  who  would  take  only  a  moderate  share 
of  the  crop.  The  growers  were  therefore  in  great  dis- 
tress. 

A  traveller  notes  in  1788  that  "Wethersfield  is  remark- 
able for  its  vast  fields  uniformly  covered  with  onions,  of 
which  great  quantities  are  exported  to  the  West  Indies." 

The  common  garden  vegetables  and  herbs  as  we  have 
seen  were  usually  raised  in  the  preceding  century. 

Maple  sugar  was  made  in  Norfolk  and  Goshen  and 
probably  in  many  other  parts  of  the  Colony.  In  1774 
16,000  pounds  were  produced  in  Norfolk  and  in  1784  a 
third  more  (62,  Vol.  III). 

As  we  have  seen,  fruit,  particularly  apples,  were  grown 
in  considerable  quantity  early  in  the  settlement  and  were 
used  largely  for  making  cider.   The  planting  of  orchards 


330  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

apparently  increased  with  the  increasing  quiet  and  pros- 
perity and  more  attention  was  paid  to  the  finer  varieties. 

Dudley,  states  that  in  1726  Pearmain,  Kentish  Pippin 
and  Golden  Russetin  were  esteemed  apples  in  New  Eng- 
land and  Orange  and  Bergamont  were  cultivated  pears. 
It  is  likely  that  at  first  many  of  the  apple  trees  were  seed- 
lings and  their  fruit  was  mainly  ''cider  apples"  rather 
than  good  eating  varieties.  In  a  paper  on  the  Pioneers  of 
Pomology  in  New  Haven,  (44,  Vol.  I),  the  author  says 
that  Benjamin  Douglass  was  the  first  propagator  of  fine 
fruit  in  New  Haven  known  to  him.  In  1775  he  planted 
64  cherry  trees,  all  grafted.  White  and  Black  Ox  Hearts, 
Honey  Heart  and  May  Duke.  In  1780  or  soon  after 
grafts  of  Delancey  pear  and  a  large,  sweet,  red  apple  were 
distributed  and  the  pear,  called  Jonah,  was  still  alive  in 
1865. 

Nathan  Beers,  before  1779  grew  Catharine,  Jargonelle, 
Warden,  St.  Michael's  Bergamont  and  many  other  pears. 
T.  S.  Gold  of  West  Cornwall  reports  (21),  that  he  has  a 
Seeknofurther,  grafted  near  the  ground,  the  last  survivor 
of  an  orchard  which  he  believes  was  set  out  in  1760. 

Of  other  than  food  crops,  the  growing  of  flax,  hemp,  silk 
and  broom  corn  was  undertaken  with  more  or  less  suc- 
cess. Broom  corn  was  early  cultivated  in  Wethersfield 
and  in  1797  the  first  broom  was  made  from  this  plant 
(64).  It  is  matter  of  tradition  that  Benjamin  Franklin 
introduced  this  plant  in  1781  from  seed  which  he  saved 
from  a  whisk  broom  that  came  from  the  West  Indies. 
Previously  brooms  were  made  from  splints. 

Hemp  was  greatly  needed  for  cordage  for  the  vessels 
built  on  the  coast  and  the  Indian  hemp  was  not  satisfac- 
tory in  quality  or  sufficient  in  supply.  The  growing  of 
English  hemp  became  necessary.  In  1734,  (15,  Vol.  VII), 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  331 

the  Colony  offered  bounties  for  good,  well-dressed,  water- 
rotted  hemp  in  lots  of  not  less  than  50  pounds,  raised  in 
the  Colony  and  for  "well  wrought  canvas  or  duck,"  In 
1740,  (10),  every  family  was  ordered  to  get  at  least  a 
spoonful  of  English  hemp  seed  and  "sow  in  some  f  rutfull 
soyle,  at  least  a  foote  distant  between  every  seed,  and  the 
same  so  planted,  shall  presarve  and  keepe  in  husbandl)' 
manner  for  supply  of  seed  for  another  yeare." 

Later  bounties  were  ofTered  by  the  court  for  fine  linen 
cloth  woven  in  the  Colony.  In  1787  the  State  ordered  that 
forty  shillings  per  acre  of  land  on  which  hemp  was  raised 
should  be  abated  by  the  assessors  on  the  tax  of  said  land 
and  after  1789  a  duty  was  to  be  laid  on  imported  hemp. 

More  important  to  the  families  of  Connecticut  was 
flax.  Cotton  goods  were  very  scarce.  "Cotton  wool"  had 
long  ago  been  imported  from  the  West  Indies  in  very 
moderate  quantity  but  it  was  used  not  for  making  cotton 
fabrics  but  for  the  lining  of  vests  to  be  worn  as  a  protec- 
tion against  the  arrows  of  the  Indians.  In  1643  every 
family  in  New  Haven  plantation  was  required  by  law  to 
have  a  coat  of  cotton  wool  well  and  substantially  made, 
"so  as  it  may  be  fit  for  service  and  custom" ;  and  probably 
the  law  required  this  until  there  was  no  longer  danger  of 
an  Indian  attack. 

Until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  com- 
mon wearing  apparel,  at  least  outside  the  centers  of  popu- 
lation, as  well  as  other  household  fabrics,  were  homespun 
and  spun  and  woven  by  the  family  or  the  immediate 
neighborhood  from  home-grown  wool  and  flax.  In  some 
places  this  home  weaving  continued  well  into  the  nine- 
teenth century  but  probably  little  flax  was  grown  after 
1830.    Apparently  it  was  grown  on  a  considerable  scale 


332  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

for  a  time  for  its  oil  and  the  cake  from  the  presses  was 
used  for  feed  as  it  is  at  the  present  time. 

The  growing  of  mulberry  trees  and  silk  worms  and  the 
manufacture  of  sewing  silk  and  silk  fabrics  was  an  indus- 
try which  had  its  rise  and  considerable  development  in 
this  century.  Stiles  states  that  the  first  silk  worms  raised 
in  New  England  were  grown  by  Rev.  Dr.  Wigglesworth 
of  Harvard  College  about  1727.  The  industry  began  in 
Connecticut  about  1732,  (12),  and  was  not  abandoned 
till  about  1840. 

In  1734,  (15,  Vol.  VII),  the  production  of  silk  was 
encouraged  by  bounties  offered  by  the  Colony  for  the 
production  of  sewing  silk  and  silk  fabrics  from  silk  worms 
bred  and  nourished  within  the  Colony. 

In  1747,  Governor  Law  wore  the  first  coat  and  stock- 
ings made  of  New  England  silk  and  in  1750  his  daughter 
wore  the  first  gown  made  of  the  same  material.  Governor 
Leete  raised  silk  and  wore  a  suit  of  it  about  1783. 

President  Stiles  of  Yale  College  took  great  interest  in 
the  project  and  probably  did  more  than  any  one  else  to 
make  possible  a  chance  of  success  in  the  industry,  by  his 
careful  studies  in  breeding  and  feeding  the  worms  and  in 
getting  mulberry  trees  planted  throughout  the  State,  the 
foliage  of  which  is  the  sole  food  of  the  worms.  In  the 
library  of  Yale  University  is  a  manuscript  volume  with 
the  title,  "Observations  on  the  Silk  Wormx  and  the  Culture 
of  Silk,  A.  D.  1763,  Being  the  Journal  of  an  Experiment 
in  Newport,  R.  I.,  in  the  Summer  of  1763  in  Raising 
about  3,000  Silk  Worms.  By  Ezra  Stiles."  He  spared 
no  manual  labor,  nor  painstaking  observation  of  his 
worms  and  kept  a  full  record  of  his  daily  observations. 
These  cannot  be  further  noticed  here,  but  it  is  pleasant 
to  see  that  this  eminent  divine  named  the  three  worms 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  333 

which  he  had  under  very  particular  observation,  for  con- 
venience of  reference,  General  Wolfe,  Oliver  Cromwell 
and  Yeo.  "General  Wolfe  and  Oliver  Cromwell,  his  com- 
panion, very  sluggish,  eat  a  little  or  rather  nibble."  "Yeo 
has  not  yet  settled  himself.  Oliver  in  indolence  below." 
etc. 

.  In  1788,  1789  and  1790  Stiles  sent  to  each  of  eighty 
ministers  in  the  State  enough  mulberry  seed  to  grow  4,000 
trees,  with  the  understanding  that  at  the  end  of  three 
years  three-quarters  of  them  shall  belong  to  the  planters 
and  the  others  distributed  by  the  minister  gratis  in  his 
parish.  In  1784  the  State  offered  bounties  for  growing 
mulberry  trees  under  suitable  conditions.  In  1789  a  writer 
in  the  Connecticut  Courant  states  that  there  were  about 
12,000  mulberry  trees  in  the  State.  Silk  culture  was  begun 
in  Mansfield  and  neighboring  towns  as  early  as  1760  and 
there  it  maintained  its  foothold  until  about  1840. 

The  largest  amount  of  reeled  silk  produced  in  any  one 
year  in  Mansfield  is  stated  to  have  been  7,000  pounds, 
but  in  general  not  above  3,000  pounds.  The  New  London 
Gazette,  of  March  31,  1769,  states  that  William  Hanks 
of  Mansfield  is  now  "cultivating  a  large  vineyard  and  last 
year  raised  silk  sufficient  to  make  three  women's  gowns." 
A  very  limited  amount  of  silk  was  produced  in  many 
places  through  the  State  until  about  1835  when  a  silk  bub- 
ble business  grew  rapidly  until  about  1839  or  1840  when 
it  burst  and  ended  silk  culture  in  this  State.  The  Morus 
multicaulis  is  a  mulberry  growing  more  rapidly  and  hav- 
ing much  larger  leaves  than  the  black  or  white  mulberry 
which  had  been  grown  hitherto.  Nurseries  of  the  multi- 
caulis were  established  and  the  prices  of  trees  rose  from 
one  and  two  dollars  apiece  to  as  much  as  $300  to  $vSOO 
per  hundred.   In  1839  the  nursery  men  suffered  from  the 


334  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

financial  panic  of  1837  and  it  appeared  that  the  multi- 
caulis  was  not  hardy  enough  for  the  northern  states. 
Prices  went  to  pieces  and  many  nurseries  were  ruined.  To 
close  the  whole  story  a  fatal  blight  of  the  mulberry  trees 
became  common  all  over  the  country  which  resulted  in 
the  death  of  the  worms  and  the  practical  abandonment 
of  the  business.  But  the  failure  of  silk  production  was  in- 
evitable even  if  there  had  been  no  panic  and  no  multicaitlis. 
The  feeding  of  silk  worms  can  only  be  successfully  car- 
ried on  where  hand  labor  is  exceedingly  cheap  and  abund- 
ant and  the  scale  of  living  is  very  low. 

Tobacco  had  been  grown  in  Connecticut  in  the  preced- 
ing century  for  home  consumption  but  in  the  eighteenth 
century  it  had  become  an  article  of  export.  In  1753  in- 
spectors were  appointed  to  pack  all  tobacco  which  was 
offered  for  sale.  Stiles  states  that  tobacco  was  packed  in 
hogsheads  and  shipped  to  the  West  Indies.  It  sold  for 
five-pence  the  pound.  The  date  is  not  clear  but  probably 
before  1768. 

The  acts  of  Connecticut  published  in  1784  provide  that 
"Whereas  Tobacco  is  or  may  be  a  considerable  Article  of 
Exportation  and  ought  to  be  under  such  Regulation  as  to 
prevent  Fraud  therein,"  each  town  was  to  elect  two  or 
more  surveyors  or  packers  of  tobacco,  ''who  shall  care- 
fully survey  and  search  the  Tobacco  by  them  to  be  packed 
and  shall  cull  out  and  separate  all  such  Hands  of  Tobacco 
as  are  in  Whole  or  in  Part  damnified  in  any  way  or  by 
any  means  whatever :  and  shall  pack  or  press  no  Tobacco 
but  what  is  judged  by  him  to  be  sound,  well  ripened,  suffi- 
ciently cured  and  every  way  good  and  merchantable."  The 
packer  is  required  to  brand  each  cask  or  container  which 
he  packs  with  the  first  two  letters  of  his  name  and  with 
the  name  of  the  town  wherein  he  dwells. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  335 

No  one  may  pack  his  own  tobacco  or  transport  any 
unbranded  tobacco. 

The  object  thus  sought  in  1784  is  one  of  the  aims  of 
the  Connecticut  Valley  Tobacco  Improvem.ent  Associa- 
tion very  recently  established  in  this  State. 

Along  with  the  more  strictly  agricultural  business  of 
the  farmers  of  the  Colony  should  be  mentioned  the  tapping 
of  pine  trees  and  the  making  of  tar,  pitch  and  turpentine 
which,  used  to  some  extent  at  home,  were  articles  of  ex- 
port. 

From  the  earliest  days  sheep  and  hogs  were  commonly 
raised  and  their  numbers  increased  easily  and  rapidly. 
Pork  was  sufficiently  abundant  to  be  exported.  More 
sheep  were  raised  in  Connecticut,  (in  1781),  than  in  any 
two  of  the  other  colonies.  "Their  wool  is  better  than  in 
other  colonies  but  not  so  fine  or  good  as  the  English" 
(52).  The  wool  used  for  clothing  or  bedding  was  spun 
and  wove  in  the  separate  families.  In  1774  the  General 
Court  notes  that  "It  is  practiced  by  some  particular  in- 
habitants to  turn  large  flocks  (of  sheep)  on  the  highways 
with  a  keeper  and  thereby  eat  up  and  destroy  the  herbage 
therein  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  poor  inhabitants  of 
such  towns,"  and  orders  that  no  one  shall  turn  more  than 
fifty  on  the  highway  without  getting  permission  from  the 
town  (15,  Vol.  14). 

The  number  of  cows  increased  more  slowly  but  butter 
and  cheese  were  exported,  at  least  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
century. 

The  town  of  Goshen  early  established  a  reputation  and 
foreign  trade  in  cheese  which  will  be  noticed  later. 

Trouble  from  wolves  continued  through  the  eighteenth 
century,  though  their  number  was  very  materially  reduced 
and  at  its  close  was  probably  so  small  as  to  make  the 


336  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

damage  done  by  them  infrequent.  Bounties  were  offered 
for  their  destruction  partly  by  the  Colony  or  State  and 
partly  by  the  town,  as  high  as  fifteen  pounds,  "old  tenor," 
in  1750,  three  pounds  in  1784,  which  represent  the  ex- 
tremes. 

When  Goshen  was  settled  about  1730,  bears,  raccoons, 
wolves  and  foxes  were  plenty  and  for  a  long  time  there- 
after.   Beavers  were  also  found. 

The  wolves  were  especially  troublesome  and  injurious. 

In  1784  four  wolves  appeared  one  Sunday  in  the  vi- 
cinity of  Norfolk  and  fearing  for  their  stock  an  alarm  was 
given  to  the  congregation  in  church.  About  eighty  men 
turned  out  and  after  a  chase  got  all  the  marauders.  The 
church  service  was  over,  for  them,  and  "the  whole  party 
then  retired  to  an  Inn  and  spent  the  day  in  joy  and  fes- 
tivity" (5). 

Bears  were  taken  in  Litchfield  County  between  1760 
and  1770,  (16)  and  wild  cats  occasionally  destroyed  sheep 
and  lambs.  About  the  same  time  (5),  a  bear  was  killed 
in  Bethany  which  had  destroyed  calves  and  bee  hives  and 
even  had  the  effrontery  to  enter  a  house  and  lap  up  the 
milk  and  cream.  A  panther,  (5),  in  1767,  which  had 
killed  nine  sheep  in  a  yard  at  Windsor,  was  tracked  and 
killed. 

Dogs,  first  cousins  to  the  wolves,  had  become  common 
and  developed  that  fondness  for  mutton  which  their  age 
cannot  wither  nor  custom  stale. 

In  1738  a  law  provided  that  if  a  selectman  declared  that 
evidence  of  harm  to  sheep  or  cattle  was,  in  his  opinion, 
satisfactory,  the  dog  concerned  might  be  killed  and  the 
owner  be  liable  for  damages.  Any  dog  found  at  large  in 
fields  or  woods  without  a  master  might  be  lawfully  killed. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  337 

Various  other  laws  regarding  damage  by  dogs  were 
passed  from  1716  to  1786. 

A  minor  pest,  then  as  now,  was  mice  which  occasionally 
girdled  orchard  trees  (25,  Vol.  II). 

Blackbirds  were  enough  of  a  plague  in  1711  to  cause 
the  Hartford  authorities,  (14,  Vol.  VI),  to  require  every 
rateable  person  to  kill  one  dozen  blackbirds  in  the  four 
months  beginning  with  March  or  else  to  pay  a  fine  of 
one  shilling.  Those  who  kill  more  than  a  dozen  may  re- 
ceive a  penny  apiece. 

Wheat  had  been  seriously  affected  by  "blast"  which 
came  to  be  rightly  attributed  to  the  presence  of  barberry 
bushes.  In  the  Colonial  Records  for  1726,  page  10,  it  is 
recorded  "Whereas  the  abounding  of  barberry  bushes  is 
thought  to  be  very  hurtful,  it  being  by  plentyful  experi- 
ence found  that  where  they  are  in  large  quantities  they 
do  occasion  or  at  least  increase,  the  blast  on  all  sorts  of 
English  grain,"  the  inhabitants  of  each  town  are  em- 
powered to  agree  on  the  utter  destruction  of  such  bushes 
within  the  town  and  the  time  and  manner  of  their  de- 
struction. 

A  fine  of  ten  shillings  is  imposed  on  any  one  who  op- 
poses the  destruction,  to  be  paid  for  every  month  he  op- 
poses until  he  gives  free  consent.  Provided  that  if  the 
bushes  are  depended  on  for  a  fence,  the  town  shall  make 
just  satisfaction. 

In  1784  the  Laws  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  provide 
that  any  one,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  civil 
authorities  and  selectmen  of  the  town  may,  during  March, 
April,  October  and  November,  enter  any  lands  where  bar- 
berry bushes  are  growing  and  dig  up  and  destroy  them 
without  being  liable  to  any  action,  suit  or  damage.  In 
1796  the  town  of  New  Haven.  ( 16) ,  granted  $200  for  the 


338  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

purpose  of  destroying  the  barberry  bushes  within  its  lim- 
its and  they  were  "principally  destroyed."  "The  method 
adopted  to  destroy  them  was  to  eradicate  them." 

This  was  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before 
botanical  studies  proved  a  direct  connection  between  the 
blast  of  wheat  and  barberry  bushes.  The  farmer  knew 
nothing  of  Puccinia  graminis  and  "heteroecious  rusts" 
which  must  spend  a  part  of  their  life  cycle  on  one  plant 
and  a  part  on  a  different  one.  But  they  adopted  a  plan 
which  was  effective  and  which  the  farmers  of  the  middle 
west  are  now  carrying  out  at  a  very  considerable  expense. 

No  extended  discussion  of  economic  history  is  here  in 
place,  but  because  farm  produce  had  largely  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  money  in  the  exchange  of  service,  a  brief 
notice  of  financial  conditions  is  proper. 

The  amount  of  money  in  the  Colony  had  been  relatively 
very  small  ever  since  its  settlement.  The  need  for  it  had 
also  been  quite  limited. 

As  we  have  seen  the  dwellers  in  Connecticut  for  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  had  been  engaged  in  settling  and  subduing 
a  wilderness,  producing  food  and  clothing  for  their  own 
families  and  having  very  limited  intercourse  or  trade  with 
the  world  outside."  Barter  took  the  place  of  a  common 
medium  of  exchange.  But  this  scarcity  of  money  became 
an  acute  embarrassment  when  intercourse  between  com- 
munities and  foreign  trade  developed.  The  close  of  the 
war  of  independence  (72),  found  finances  in  almost  hope- 
less confusion  and  there  was  little  improvement  before 
the  end  of  the  century.  All  coins,  excepting  coppers,  were 
foreign,  many  badly  worn  or  mutilated.    The  Spanish 

ISA  farmer  writes  (19,  Aug,  18,  1788),  "At  this  time  my  farm  gave  me 
and  my  whole  family  a  good  living  on  the  produce  of  it  and  left  me,  one 
year  with  another  one  hundred  and  fifty  silver  dollars ;  for  I  never  spent 
more  than  ten  dollars  a  year,  which  was  for  salt,  nails  and  the  like.  Nothing 
to  wear,  eat  or  drink  was  purchased,  as  my  farm  provided  all." 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  339 

"milled  dollar"  or  "piece  of  eight"  was  most  common,  ob- 
tained in  the  West  India  trade  and  after  the  war  this  and 
its  subdivisions  were  the  recognized  unit  of  account,  equiv- 
alent to  the  dollar.  The  other  most  common  coins  were  the 
French  guineas  and  pistoles,  Portuguese  moidores  and 
"Johannes  or  "Joes"  ^*  and  Spanish  doubloons  and  pistoles. 

The  supply  of  fractional  currency  was  inadequate  and 
silver  pieces  were  often  cut  in  halves  or  quarters.  The 
coins  of  Great  Britain  were  in  very  limited  circulation. 
In  1785  Congress  made  the  silver  dollar  the  currency 
basis  of  a  decimal  system.  The  equivalent  of  the  dollar 
in  New  England  was  six  shillings  but  was  different 
in  different  states.  Large  amounts  of  paper,  "Continen- 
tal" money  entered  circulation  during  the  war  and  suc- 
ceeding years,  the  value  of  which  went  from  bad  to  worse. 

In  1780  one  dollar  in  silver  was  the  equivalent  of  65 
dollars  in  paper  money  which  became  "not  worth  a  conti- 
nental" when  Congress  refused  to  accept  its  own  paper 
money  in  payment  of  postage. 

In  November  1777,  (15),  Congress  recommended  that 
commissioners  be  appointed  in  the  several  states,  New 
Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Connecticut,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  to  meet  in  New 
Haven,  to  ascertain  and  regulate  the  price  of  labor,  manu- 
factures, internal  produce  and  commodities,  imported  and 
to  recommend  legislatures  to  enact  suitable  laws  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  recommendations.  There  is  a  con- 
siderable list  of  these  recommended  prices  in  lawful 
money,  six  shillings  to  the  dollar.  (The  "dollar"  was  the 
equivalent  of  a  "piece  of  eight" ).'^^  Among  them  are: 

1*  A  gold  coin,  worth  about  nine  dollars  coined  by  John  (Johannes)  a 

king  of  Portugal. 

15  A  suggested  explanation  of  the  dollar  sign,  $,  is  the  use  of  the  numeral 
8  with  two  vertical  lines  to  give  it  a  monetary  significance. 


340  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Wheat,  peas,  beans,  per  bushel $  1.61 

Rye  or  rye  meal 1.08 

Indian  corn  or  meal 75 

Oats   50 

Butter,  (firkin  or  cask)  per  pound 20.7 — .22 

Neat  leather  shoes 1.99 

Best  American  steel,  per  ton 66.40 

All  through  the  history  of  the  Colony^®  and  especially 
towards  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  we  find 
efforts  made  to  regulate  the  price  both  of  labor  and  com- 
modities and  to  fix  the  price  at  which  commodities  could 
be  used  for  the  payment  of  a  part  of  the  state  or  town 
taxes.  Sheldon  cites,  (57),  "colony  pay"  at  which  grain 
and  other  articles  would  be  received  for  colony  taxes, 
"town  prices"  at  which  the  same  things  would  be  received 
for  town  taxes  or  for  exchanges,  "provision  pay"  was 
grain  or  other  food. 

Thus,  for  paying  town  debts  the  value  of  wheat  was 
fixed  at  6  shillings  the  bushel  in  1722,  12  shillings  in  1740, 
16  shillings  in  1742,  and  17  in  1746,  "old  tenor."  Values 
for  other  cereals  are  also  given. 

The  wages  of  laborers  in  Goshen  (29),  were  fixed  at 
town  meeting  at  5  shillings  a  day,  from  Oct.  1  to  the  last 
day  of  February  and  at  6  shillings  a  day  for  the  rest  of  the 
year.  How  this  regulation  was  received,  whether  it  met 
with  objection  or  was  disregarded  does  not  appear.  The 
mention  of  penalties  is  not  prominent  and  one  imagines 
that  the  law  was  a  convenience  to  facilitate  barter  rather 
than  a  stern  restriction  to  prevent  profiteering.  But  in  a 
friendly  neighborhood  where  the  struggle  for  wealth  was 


The  shilling  would  then  be  12^  cents,  one-eighth  of  the  dollar  or  the 
piece  of  eight. 

18  As  early  as  1641  (65),  the  General  Court  regulated  by  statue  the  scale 
of  prices  for  different  kinds  ol  labor,  hours  of  day  labor,  etc. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  341 

not  pressing,  because  hardly  obtainable,  some  standard 
for  exchanging  provisions  which  did  not  involve  money 
must  have  been  a  great  convenience. 

If  we  agree  to  call  a  bushel  of  wheat  this  year  $1.61 
and  of  corn  80  cents,  we  manage  to  get  one  or  the  other 
without  dispute,  though  the  dollar  itself  is  far  from  us." 
The  Mexican,  whose  offer  to  lend  his  mule  to  a  stranger 
was  thankfully  accepted,  replied  "Oh,  sir,  I  have  no  mule 
but  I  beg  you  to  receive  the  compliment."  In  like  manner 
the  farmer  might  say  to  his  shoemaker,  'T  have  no  dollar 
to  pay  for  your  work  but  I  beg  you  to  accept  a  bushel 
and  a  peck  of  corn  with  my  compliments." 

The  general  progress  of  agriculture  and  its  condition 
at  various  times  in  this  country  may  be  indicated  by  the 
following  extracts  from  the  reports  made  by  the  Colonial 
government  to  the  English  Committee  on  Trade  and 
Foreign  Plantations.  These,  or  most  of  them  are  found 
in  manuscript  copies  of  Foreign  Correspondence  with  the 
British  Government  1668-1748,  in  State  Library,  pgs, 
126,  145,  149,  165. 

"The  number  of  our  inhabitants  is  about  4,000.  (!)  A 
little  pitch  and  turpentine  and  tar  are  sent  to  Great  Bri- 
tain. Trade  is  principally  with  Boston  and  the  West  In- 
dies,^^  consisting  in  what  is  chiefly  produced  by  tillage  of 
the  land.  Most  people  weave  their  cloth  in  their  own 
families.  Horses  and  lumber  are  sent  to  the  West  Indies 
in  exchange  for  sugar,  salt,  molasses  and  rum." 

"Coarse  cloths  and  coarse  linens  are  made  amongst  us 
of  our  own  wool  and  flax  without  which  our  people  must 

17  A  shoemaker's  ledger  from  1770  to  1784  (34),  shows  that  he  was  paid, 
for  making  shoes,  in  walnuts,  butter,  sugar,  salt,  milk,  wheat,  rye,  wool, 
meats,  cider  and  rum. 

18  At  this  time  only  42  vessels  were  owned  in  the  colony  with  a  tonnage 
of  1,225,  a  very  small  gain  over  the  year  1680. 


342  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

go  naked  or  ragged  ye  greater  part  of  the  time.  We  tan 
our  own  leather  and  make  most  of  our  own  shoes." 

In  1708,  "The  trade  of  this  Colony  is  principally  what 
is  produced  by  their  tillage  of  the  land.  The  manufac- 
turers in  this  Colony  are  but  few.  There  is  but  one  clothier 
in  the  Colony  so  that  our  people  are  necessitated  to  weave 
the  cloth  that  they  can  make  in  their  own  families  with- 
out any  thing  more  than  fulling  of  it,  (for  the  most 
part),  after  it  comes  out  of  the  loom.  All  we  make  is  not 
enough  to  serve  the  occasions  of  the  poorer  sort." 

In  1728,  'The  trade  of  the  Colony  is  but  small.  Horses 
and  lumber  are  exported  from  home  to  the  West  Indies 
for  which  we  ...  in  exchange  sugar,  salt,  mo- 
lasses and  rum.  What  provisions  we  can  spare  and 
some  small  yearly  ...  of  tar  and  turpentine  are 
sent  to  Boston  and  New  York  and  Rhode  Island  for 
which  we     .     .     .     European  goods." 

The  last  report  to  the  Committee,  made  just  before  the. 
Revolution,  (Appendix  to  Public  Records,  1772  to  1775) 
names  the  same  agricultural  products  as  were  common 
about  a  hundred  years  before,  with  the  addition  of  flax. 
The  staple  commodities  were  pork,  beef,  pot  and  pearl 
ashes. 

The  principal  trade  was  with  the  West  Indies  with  an 
occasional  cargo  of  flax  seed  to  Ireland,  to  England  with 
lumber  and  potashes  and  a  few  to  Gibralter  and  Barbary 
with  flour,  lumber  and  New  England  rum. 

The  value  of  the  exported  produce  and  commodities 
may  be  200,000  pounds.  Manufacture  of  linens  and 
woolens  was  done  in  the  family,  for  the  use  of  the  poorer 
.sort,  laborers  and  servants.  Iron,  mostly  bog  iron,  was 
rmanufactured  to  some  extent  "but  hitherto  not  a  supply 
ior  our  inhabitants." 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  343 

In  the  eighteenth  century  three  Connecticut  men  ap- 
pear prominent  for  service  in  promoting  and  improving 
agriculture.  There  were  no  doubt  others  who  were  also 
leaders,  but  these  three  have  left  permanent  records  of 
their  services.  Rev.  Ezra  Stiles,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  was  the 
President  of  Yale  College,  from  1777  to  1795.  He  has 
left  a  record  of  his  studies  in  the  growing  of  silk  worms, 
diligently  carried  for  two  years  or  more.  He  was  the 
chief  agent  in  planting  mulberry  trees  throughout  the 
State,  which  provides  food  for  the  silk  worms,  and  he 
showed  great  interest  and  helpfulness  in  all  agricultural 
matters. 

Rev.  Jared  Eliot  of  Killingworth,  a  grandson  of  John 
Eliot,  the  apostle  to  the  Indians,  a  graduate  of  Yale,  was 
a  clergyman  of  Killingworth,  most  acceptable  in  this 
calling  and  it  is  recorded,  (16),  that  for  more  than  forty 
years  he  never  failed  of  preaching  at  home  or  abroad  a 
part  of  every  Sabbath.  He  was  also  a  physician,  very  ex- 
tensively employed  in  the  neighboring  places  "and  such 
was  his  reputation  that  he  was  sometimes  called  out  of 
the  Colony."  "Much  of  his  practice  was  performed  gratu- 
itously and  in  charities  he  abounded."  Connected  with 
his  knowledge  of  medicine  was  his  acquaintance  with  the 
botany  of  the  region.  He  was  withal  a  successful  farmer 
and  "acquired  a  large  landed  estate  which  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  wealth  of  a  numerous  family."  But  aside 
from  his  example  as  a  progressive  and  successful  farmer, 
his  chief  service  was  in  his  writings,  the  most  interesting 
of  which  is  a  series  of  Essays  upon  Field  Husbandry 
in  New  England  as  it  is  or  may  be  Ordered.  This,  it 
is  believed,  was  the  first  practical  agricultural  treatise 
written  in  this  country. 

The  first  of  these  essays  appeared  in  1748  and  in  sub- 


344  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

sequent  years  five  others,  with  an  index  concluding  the 
series  in  1761. 

He  discusses  the  handling  of  tilled  land,  drainage,  the 
grasses  which  he  finds  most  useful,  the  production  of 
silk,  the  use  of  creek  mud  as  a  fertilizer,  etc.  He  intro- 
duced and  urged  the  growing  of  clover  which  made  its 
way  into  general  farming  very  slowly  (25,  Vol.  II).  He 
was  an  experimenter  and  reported  the  results  of  his 
work  for  the  benefit  of  the  public.  Prof.  Eli  Ives,  in  an 
address  before  the  New  Haven  Horticultural  Society  in 
1837  states  that  Jared  Eliot  introduced  chicory  into  this 
State  and  that  he  was  the  first  native  citizen  of  this  coun- 
try to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Lon- 
don. He  also  appears  to  have  been  the  first  to  introduce 
an  agricultural  machine,  a  seed  and  fertilizer  drill.  Start- 
ing with  Jethro  Tull's  wheat  drill  which  he  found  very 
intricate  and  expensive,  "But  knew  not  how  to  mend  it, 
therefore  applied  myself  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Clapp, 
President  of  Yale  College  and  desired  him  for  the  regard 
which  he  had  to  the  public  and  to  me,  that  he  would  apply 
his  mathematical  learning  and  mechanical  genius,  in  that 
affair,  which  he  did  to  such  good  purpose  that  this  new 
modelled  drill  can  be  made  with  a  fourth  part  of  what 
Mr.  Tull's  will  cost." 

Next  Eliot  wanted  a  dung  drill  for  which  there  was 
no  model  or  precedent  available.  But  Benonai  Hylliard 
of  Killingworth,  a  wheelwright,  devised  one  which  was 
combined  with  the  seed  drill  so  that  they  became  one  tool 
and  could  distribute  80  bushels  of  dung  per  acre,  along 
with  the  seed.  Eliot  adds  that  Tull  writes,  "Two  shil- 
lings in  horse  plowing  would  do  more  than  forty  shillings 
in  dung." 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  345 

To  this  Eliot  remarks,  'T  should  be  glad,  if  in  our 
climate  one-half  of  this  would  prove  true." 

The  perfected  drill  received  an  award  of  fifty  pounds 
offered  by  the  New  London  Society  for  the  Encourage- 
ment of  Arts,  and  there  was  dispute  between  the  estate 
of  Jared  Eliot  and  Hylliard  as  to  the  possession  of  this 
award. 

Agriculture  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  agriculture  of  the  seventeenth  century  had  been  a 
struggle  of  each  family  to  produce  for  itself  by  its  own 
labor,  food,  clothing  and  shelter  and  to  defend  itself 
against  the  attacks  of  Indians  and  the  ravages  of  wild 
beasts  which  together  threatened  the  destruction  of  the 
settlements.   It  was  truly  a  struggle  for  existence. 

Agriculture  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  been  less 
menaced  in  these  ways  but  was  interrupted  by  the  war 
with  the  mother  country,  by  emigration  to  western  lands 
and  by  the  political  agitation  incident  to  the  establishment 
of  a  federal  union.  These  were  matters  of  great  concern 
to  men  who  had  fled  from  what  they  considered  political 
and  religious  injustice,  matters  not  to  be  left  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  a  politician  class  but  to  be  anxiously  and  often 
acrimoniously  discussed  in  their  town  meetings  as  well 
as  in  the  state  legislative  assembly  by  men  who  thought 
more  about  the  future  of  the  State  than  of  improvements 
in  agriculture. 

In  general  each  family  formed  a  closed  circle,  contain- 
ing within  itself  both  producers  and  consumers  in  about 
equal  proportion. 

"The  close  of  the  Revolution  found  the  State  greatly 
impoverished.  The  demands  made  on  the  State  for  pro- 
visions for  the  army,"  says  Gov.  Trumbull,"  were  "vastlv 


346  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

beyond  her  just  proportion.  Payment  in  depreciated  cur- 
rency involved  financial  loss  and  discontent.  Connecti- 
cut also  bore  the  expense  of  defending  her  own  coasts, 
an  expense  which  the  federal  government  refused  to  as- 
sume" (34). 

At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  nine-tenths 
of  the  inhabitants  got  most  of  their  living  from  the  farm.^® 
Even  those  who  had  other  business  or  profession,  arti- 
zans,  lawyers,  physicians  and  clergymen,  all  had  farming 
land  and  supported  themselves  partly  from  its  produce. 

This  is  illustrated  by  a  statement  that  the  doctors  in 
Canterbury  practiced  medicine  "when  they  had  nothing 
more  important  to  do,"  and  the  inventory  of  a  physician 
in  that  region,  besides  his  stock  of  drugs,  included  a  pair 
of  oxen,  thirteen  cows,  thirty-five  head  of  young  cattle 
and  sheep,  swine,  hay,  farming  tools,  etc.  It  was  usual 
to  set  aside  a  tract  of  land  for  the  support  of  the  minister 
and  he  also  was  often  dependent,  in  part,  for  support,  on 
his  own  work  in  farming. 

It  was  only  a  very  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  popu- 
lation which  did  not  clothe  and  feed  itself,  mostly  by  its 
own  labor  and  on  its  own  land.  The  sum  total  of  manu- 
factures was  not  large  and  manufacturing,  particularly 
of  clothing  and  other  textiles,  was  chiefly  done,  not  in 
factories  but  in  families  and  was,  up  to  this  time,  largely 
for  home  or  community  consumption. 

The  methods  of  agriculture  made  no  marked  improve- 
ment in  these  two  centuries.  Bidwell,  (8),  says  "The 
ignorance  and  the  conservatism  of  farmers  were  to  some 
extent  hindrances  to  agricultural  progress,  cheap  land  on 

19  In  1810  about  one-tenth  of  the  population  lived  in  towns  of  between 
five  and  six  thousand,  one-quarter  in  towns  of  between  three  and  five 
thousand  dwellers  (average  thirty-seven  hundred),  and  about  two-thirds  in 
still  smaller  communities. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  347 

the  frontier  discouraged  cultivation  at  home;  but  these 
circumstances  do  not,  either  alone  or  in  combination,  fur- 
nish a  sufficient  explanation  of  the  state  of  the  industry 
which  prevailed. 

'Tn  the  background  lay  a  condition  of  much  more  sig- 
nificance because  of  its  determining  force  upon  all  the 
others.  I  refer  to  the  lack  of  a  market  for  agricultural 
products."  The  author  asserts  that  with  a  suitable  mar- 
ket, neither  ignorance  of  methods,  nor  cheap  land  inviting 
extensive  rather  than  intensive  farming  would  have  stood 
in  the  way  of  agricultural  progress.  But  with  little  or 
no  chance  to  sell  a  surplus  of  corn,  butter,  cheese,  etc., 
of  what  use  was  it  for  the  inland  farmers  to  raise  such  a 
surplus  ?    It  was  time  and  labor  wasted. 

Agriculture  was  waiting  for  an  increase  of  non-pro- 
ducing population,  and  facilities  for  foreign  trade  which 
were  to  come  with  improved  means  of  transportation 
and  the  growth  of  manufactures  and  of  shipping. 

The  condition  of  agriculture  at  the  beginning  of  this 
century  is  set  forth  by  Purcell  as  follows  (54)  :  ''Ameri- 
can agriculture  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  inferior  to  that  of  England"  (24,  Vol.  I) .  "The  small 
free  holder  with  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  fift}'  acres 
could  not  afford  to  be  progressive.  Content  with  a 
tolerable  crop  which  covered  local  demand,  he  was  con- 
tented to  scratch  the  top  of  an  exha^usted  soil  with  an  an- 
tiquated plow,  sow  home  grown  seed  on  unharrowed 
fields  and  await  the  harvest.  Indian  corn,  the  staple  crop, 
was  cultivated  as  the  aborigines  had  taught  the  first 
settlers,  fertilized  by  white  fish  or  sea  weed." 

''Small  apple  orchards  furnished  cider  apples  for  cider 
brandy,"  but  not  exclusively  for  brandy  making.  Cider 
itself  was  a  common,  not  to  say  an  almost  universal  drink 


348  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

in  families  and  some  good  eating  apples  were  also  grown. 
The  housewife  also  made  store  of  dried  apples  and  apple 
butter  for  winter  use.  In  the  aggregate,  ''the  production 
of  butter  and  cheese  was  large."  "Sheep  were  of  a  mongrel 
type  producing  little  wool."  "Oxen  were  used  for  heavy 
work  on  the  farm  and  horses  chiefly  for  driving."  "Swine 
alone  were  considered  up  to  the  standard  by  foreign  ob- 
servers." "The  fodder  for  livestock  was  insufficient;  the 
lack  of  nourishment  coupled  with  imperfect  shelter  and 
inattention  to  the  principles  of  selection  in  breeding,  had 
caused  a  general  degeneration  in  practically  all  kinds  of 
domestic  animals."  ^° 

"In  general  the  system  of  agriculture  was  not  only  ex- 
tensive but  even  in  many  respects  predatory :  the  farmers 
had  little  stimulus  to  get  anything  beyond  a  living."  "The 
call  for  food  supply  in  commercial  towns  can  scarcely  be 
said  to  have  had  any  influence  on  the  prosperity  of  the 
(farming)  population  or  on  farming  methods  in  the 
inland  region."  Trade  and  barter  were  generally  prac- 
ticed in  the  inland  towns,  to  provide  certain  luxuries  and 
comforts  which  the  farm  could  not  supply,  such  as  coffee, 
tea,  sugar  and  —  let  it  be  whispered  —  rum.  As  to  the 
markets  for  produce  outside  the  State,  there  was  a  limited 
trade  with  the  City  of  New  York,  then  of  100,000  in- 
habitants, the  southern  states  and  the  West  Indies, 
chiefly  from  the  river  and  shore  towns  of  Connecticut. 
In  the  New  York  market  there  was  competition  with  the 
Dutch  settlers  on  Long  Island  and  the  nearby  New  Jersey 
and  New  York  farmers.  New  Haven  also  shipped  in  the 
coasting  trade  cheese,  pork  and  hams,  butter,  lard  and 
cereals  (8),  the  only  vegetables  being  small  amounts  of 

20  The  situation  is  admirably  set  forth  in  detail  in  P.  W.  Bidwell's  Rural 
Economy  in  New  England  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  (8) 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  349 

beans  and  potatoes,  most  being  transhipped  to  the  West 
Indies.  Other  towns  shared  in  this  coastwise  trade.  The 
Connecticut  River  and  Long  Island  Sound  furnished  the 
only  convenient  channels  for  moving  the  produce  of  Con 
necticut  to  market.  But  these  means  for  carrying  and 
trading  in  the  products  of  the  farm  were  entirely  inade- 
quate to  serve  the  inland  towns. 

The  public  roads  and  highways  were  in  wretched  con- 
dition, being  generally  in  charge  of  incompetent  mana- 
gers and  inefficient  workmen  who  were  either  impressed 
by  the  town  or  were  "working  out"  their  road  tax.  Co- 
operation between  towns  and  counties  in  laying  out  and 
building  highways  was  not  always  easy.  In  short,  there 
was  neither  adequate  means  of  transporting  farm  prod- 
uce from  the  inland  producers  to  consumers,  nor  any 
great  demand  for  them.  Connecticut  had  been,  essentially 
on  a  circular  one  track  business.  It  might  have  suited  a 
literalist  who  could  quote  from  the  Scripture,  "Having 
therefore  food  and  raiment  let  us  be  therewith  content." 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  two  traits  which  have 
been  commonly  ascribed  to  the  Connecticut  Yankee  and 
which  were  developed  in  these  many  years  of  struggle 
with  adverse  conditions.  The  first  is  a  close  and  some- 
tim.es  parsimonious  economy.  Of  this  Horace  Bushnell 
wrote,  "It  was  also  a  great  point  in  this  homespun  mode 
of  life,  that  it  imparted  what  many  speak  of  only  v/ith 
contempt,  a  closely  girded  habit  of  economy. 

Harnessed  all  together  in  the  producing  process,  young 
and  old,  male  and  female,  from  the  boy  that  rode  the 
plow  horse  to  the  grandmother  knitting  under  her  spec- 
tacles, they  had  no  conception  of  squandering  lightly  what 
they  had  all  been  at  work,  thread  by  thread,  and  grain 
by  grain  to  produce"  (8).   But  along  with  this  there  was 


350  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

also  of  necessity  developed  a  spirit  of  comradeship  and 
an  exercise  of  mutual  helpfulness  in  all  times  of  need; 
for  they  were  "members  one  of  another." 

Other  traits  ascribed  to  the  Yankee  were  ingenuity  and 
resourcefulness.  In  an  unsettled  country,  without  di- 
vision of  labor,  with  almost  no  factories,  the  farmer  had 
to  be  his  own  mechanic,  machinist  and  architect. 

Inventiveness,  which  was  at  first  a  necessity  in  making 
tools  and  appliances  for  his  own  house  and  farm,  fostered 
by  the  native  mental  alertment  of  the  settler  and  the  facili- 
ties for  general  education,  instantly  applied  itself  to  in- 
vention and  manufacturing  as  a  separate  business  when 
the  political  troubles  of  the  early  nineteenth  century 
stopped  trade  with  the  factories  of  the  old  world. 

But  here  began  a  new  agriculture. 

In  a  century  where  the  growth  of  knowledge  of  the 
laws  of  nature  and  the  art  of  bringing  the  work  of  the 
world  into  co-operation  with  them,  had  been  greater  than 
in  all  the  world's  previous  history,  it  was  inevitable  that 
agriculture,  the  basic  industry  of  our  people,  should  have 
made  rapid  advances  in  methods ;  in  supplementing  hand 
labor  by  machinery,  reducing  the  man  power  required  on 
the  farm,  facilitating  transportation  and  trade,  improv- 
ing the  quality  of  live  stock  and  the  types  of  cultivated 
plants  and  restoring  the  fertility  of  soils,  temporarily  ex- 
hausted by  the  rude  agriculture  of  the  previous  centuries. 

The  course  of  Connecticut  farming  in  this  century  may 
be  roughly  divided  into  four  periods.  First,  the  period 
of  self  sufficient  economy,  at  its  highest  point  of  develop- 
ment in  the  early  years  of  the  century.  Second,  the  period 
of  transition  to  commercial  agriculture  —  agriculture  as 
a  business  —  due  to  the  development  of  manufacturing 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  351 

and  foreign  trade  which  involved  a  large  non-farming 
population. 

This  lasted  till  near  the  middle  of  the  century.  Third, 
the  period  in  which  Connecticut  agriculture  was  greatly 
depressed  by  western  and  later  by  southern  competition. 
Fourth,  the  period  of  abandonment  of  the  less  productive 
lands  and  the  unprofitable  crops  and  more  intensive  pro- 
duction of  the  very  perishable  farm  products,  fruit,  vege- 
tables, milk,  etc.,  for  consumption  in  adjacent  cities. 

Each  of  these  periods  has  forced  important  changes  in 
the  kind  of  farm  products  raised,  a  resulting  loss  of  in- 
vested capital  and  in  some  cases  the  abandonment  of 
farms  and  the  desolation  of  rural  communities. 

These  changes  also  wrought  a  diversification  of  farm- 
ing, caused  by  differences  of  soil  and  climate,  (there  is 
enough  difference  in  the  length  of  the  growing  season 
between  the  northern  and  southern  counties  to  affect 
the  yield  of  certain  crops),  opportunities  of  foreign  trade, 
etc.  Thus  at  nearly  the  same  time,  horse  and  mule  breed- 
ing for  the  West  India  trade,  was  a  paying  business  in 
the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  in  the  northwest  cheese 
making  was  popular  and  profitable,  while  in  New  Haven 
and  specially  in  Fairfield  Counties  more  flax  and  flax 
seed  were  grown  than  in  the  whole  of  New  England  be- 
sides. 

The  history  of  Connecticut  agriculture  in  this  century 
is  the  history,  not  of  the  development  of  a  single  great 
business  like  cattle  or  wheat  growing,  but  of  raising  vari- 
ous kinds  of  farm  products,  beef,  dairying,  special  crops, 
like  flax,  tobacco,  onions,  etc.,  at  times  promoted,  at  other 
times  depressed  by  wars,  financial  crises  and  the  develop- 
ment of  competition  with  other  places,  largely  caused  by 


352  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

the  growth  of  transportation  facilities  and  cheap  western 
lands. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  as  we  have  noticed,  trade 
had  begun,  chiefly  with  the  West  Indies,  but  early  in  the 
nineteenth  century  trade  and  commerce  greatly  expanded. 
The  north  Atlantic  states  were  the  food  states.  The  de- 
mand for  provisions,  fresh,  salted,  pickled  or  dried,  be- 
sides livestock  and  naval  stores,  was  great  and  trade  with 
the  warring  countries  of  Europe,  as  well  as  with  the  West 
Indies  was  very  profitable  —  and  at  times  very  risky.  The 
United  States  was  the  only  constantly  neutral  country 
with  food  to  sell  and  ships  to  carry  it  and  agriculture, 
shipbuilding  and  trade  greatly  prospered  for  a  time. 
But  from  about  1807  to  1916  embargos,  spoliations,  non- 
intercourse  acts  and  war  with  Great  Britain  and  all  the 
measures  of  other  countries  to  impede  our  manufactures 
and  commerce,  depressed  farming  in  one  direction  and 
caused  a  marvellous  expansion  of  manufacturing.  Some 
capital  had  already  been  collected  by  commerce  and  an 
intelligent  and  energetic  labor  force  immediately  pushed 
the  business  of  manufacture  when  European  suppHes 
were  cut  off  and  increased  the  demand  for  domestic 
goods  which  grew  in  volume  and  lessened  the  number  of 
food  producers. 

But  it  did  not  for  some  time  greatly  concentrate  popu- 
lation in  manufacturing  centers.  In  1840  this  State  had 
a  population  of  310,015.  About  one-sixth  of  them  were 
engaged  in  manufacture  (not  including  farm  produce, 
butter  and  cheese,  cutting  lumber,  etc.) 

Boots  and  shoes  were  extensively  made,  but  no  shoe 
factories  are  listed.  The  work  was  let  out  to  be  done  in 
families.  There  are  2,166  "factories"  listed,  but  their 
•size  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  average  number  of 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  353 


hands  in  each  of  the  284  textile  mills  was  thirty.  Eighty- 
seven  different  manufactures  are  listed  and  every  town 
had  a  considerable  number.  With  all  these  factories  only 
29;000  tons  of  coal  were  used,  small  water  powers,  wood 
and  perhaps  charcoal  furnished  the  rest  of  the  needed 
power.  It  is  obvious  that  many  of  the  "manufacturers" 
were  also  farmers  to  the  extent  of  growing  more  or  less 
of  their  own  food  (66). 

The  factory  system  of  England  became  established  in 
America  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century 
and  the  development  of  manufactures  on  a  very  large 
scale  has  been  since  1880  (9). 

While  the  total  population  of  the  State  was  2.2  times  as 
large  in  1920  as  in  1880,  the  population  of  eight  of  our 
manufacturing  towns  was  about  3.3  as  large  as  it  was 
forty  years  ago  and  includes  a  little  over  half  of  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  State.  In  1880  it  included  about  one-third. 

The  agencies  which  helped  to  make  the  art  of  agricul- 
ture more  intelligent  and  productive  by  bringing  to  its  aid 
the  results  of  farm  experience  here  and  elsewhere  were 
the  following: 

Farmers  Organizations.  Agricultural  Societies. 
These  gatherings  drew  their  members  from  the  isolation 
of  their  farm  life,  secured  social  intercourse,  the  exchange 
of  ideas  and  experience,  instruction  from  agricultural 
^^aders  and  by  frequent  shows  and  fairs  promoted  a 
healthy  emulation  in  crop  and  livestock  production. 

The  agricultural  societies  were  not  meant  to  be  just 
clubs  for  the  exchange  of  facts  and  personal  farm  experi- 
ence, but  included  men  of  all  professions  who  were  to  re- 
ceive, adopt  and  spread  the  knowledge  of  the  farming 
progress  of  all  countries.    This  they  did  in  the  earlier 


354  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

years  of  the  century,  but  later  their  chief  activity  was  in 
providing  annual  fairs  or  agricultural  shows. 

A  "Society  for  Promoting  Agriculture  in  the  State  of 
Connecticut"  was  formed  by  persons  from  several  towns, 
at  Wallingford,  Aug.  12th.  1794  and  a  constitution  was 
adopted  Nov,  11th,  1794.  Its  members  were  invited  to 
make  experiments  in  the  various  departments  of  agri- 
culture and  the  constitution  of  the  Society  contemplated 
the  free  communication  of  that  information.  Many  ex- 
periments were  made  by  the  members  themselves  and 
their  observation  was  extended  to  the  improvements  of 
their  neighbors;  the  queries  v/hich  were  framed  by  the 
Society  were  distributed  to  stimulate  a  spirit  of  investi- 
gation and  the  report  of  useful  facts  to  the  Society,  that 
they  might  be  preserved  for  general  use.  Both  oral  and 
written  communications  to  the  Society  were  encouraged 
and  the  former  committed  to  writing. 

"This  Society  shall  reject  all  doubtful  or  suspicious 
facts  in  communications  made  to  the  Society."  The 
queries  issued  by  the  Society  cover  the  whole  range  of 
farm  practice. 

In  its  Transactions,  published  in  New  Haven,  in  1802, 
a  considerable  number  of  experiments  are  recorded, 
chiefly  with  fertilizers  and  amendments  and  each  article 
is  signed  by  the  contributor.  This  Society  was  probably 
the  fifth  of  its  kind  to  be  organized  in  the  United  States. 

Regarding  it  Prof.  Brewer  states  that  it  met  at  various 
places  in  New  Haven  County,  but  its  influence  extended 
over  other  parts  of  the  State.  A  new  constitution  was 
adopted  in  1803.  A  library  was  started  in  1807.  There 
^-  seems  to  be  some  confusion  regarding  the  name  of  the 
^  vSociety.  In  1709  in  the  call  for  meetings  it  is  named 
"The  Agricultural  Society  of  the  State  of  Connecticut." 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  355 

From  1803  to  1818  it  was  called  "The  Society  for  Pro- 
moting Agriculture  in  the  State  of  Connecticut."  But 
when  the  Society  applied  for  incorporation  the  General 
Assembly  was  unwilling  to  grant  this  name,  but  granted 
the  name  of  "The  Agricultural  Society  of  New  Haven." 

At  first  many  papers  were  read  on  agricultural  topics 
at  its  meetings  which  were  quite  regularly  held  and  in 
1813  it  was  "Resolved  that  a  discourse  be  delivered  be- 
fore the  Society  at  New  Haven  on  the  day  following  the 
public  Commencement  of  Yale  College,  at  11  A.  M.  an- 
nually." 

In  1819  apparently  it  began  holding  an  agricultural 
and  manufacturing  show  in  the  county.  In  1820  the  presi- 
dent of  Yale  College  and  the  clergy  of  the  county  are 
made  honorary  members  of  the  Society. 

A  circular  issued  in  1840  speaks  of  a  "revival"  of  the 
Society  and  there  are  no  records  of  meetings  between 
1822  and  1840.  In  1841  the  Transactions  of  this  Society 
and  of  the  New  Haven  Horticultural  Society  were 
printed  in  a  pamphlet  of  84  pages.  The  annual  fairs  were 
revived  and  held  for  a  time  in  the  town  which  raised  the 
most  money  for  the  expenses  of  the  fair.  Thus  in  Water- 
bury,  in  1847,  there  were  exhibited  1,300  head  of  horned 
cattle  of  which  300  came  from  Watertown,  and  about 
10,000  people  attended  the  fair.  In  1848  it  was  voted  to 
ask  the  General  Assembly  for  an  appropriation  for  a  pro- 
fessorship of  agriculture  in  Yale  College  and  Prof.  J.  P. 
Norton  was  asked  to  deliver  a  lecture  on  agriculture  be- 
fore the  Society  during  the  next  session  of  the  Legislature 
and  that  members  of  both  houses  be  requested  to  attend. 

The  manuscript  records  of  the  Society  end  in  1860. 

The  Hartford  Agricultural  Society  was  founded  and 
incorporated  in  1817,  suspended  in  1831,  revived  in  1840, 


356  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

and  in  that  year  published  a  pamphlet  of  its  Proceedings. 
It  held  fairs  from  1854  to  1857  and  perhaps  later.  The 
Horticultural  Society  of  New  Haven,  organized  in  1830, 
incorporated  in  1833,  was  intended  to  take  the  place  of 
the  Agricultural  Society  of  Connecticut,  then  moribund, 
but  later  invigorated.  The  Society  published  reports  in 
pamphlet  form  with  premium  lists  and  occasional  papers. 
The  Society  still  exists.  Other  agricultural  societies  were 
established  as  follows:  Litchfield  County,  about  1839; 
Windham,  Fairfield  and  Middlesex  Counties  in  1840.  The 
latter  led  a  precarious  life  until  1851  when  it  became  more 
prosperous.  Its  reports  were  published  in  the  Middle- 
town  papers.  The  Tolland  County  Society  was  established 
in  1853  and  the  New  London  Society  in  1854.  The  Green- 
wood Agricultural  Society  was  founded  in  the  northern 
part  of  Litchfield  County,  in  1844.  In  the  same  year 
the  Pomological  Society  of  New  Haven  was  established. 
The  Hartford  Horticultural  Society  was  organized  in 
1849.  For  a  time  it  held  weekly  exhibits  of  fruits, 
flowers  and  vegetables,  from  June  to  October. 

But  by  the  middle  of  the  century  most  of  these  so- 
cieties became  dead  and  alive  affairs,  affected  with  sleep- 
ing sickness  (18),  only  waking  at  times  to  make  an  ex- 
hibition, which  was  a  kind  of  farm  outing,  reviving  again 
with  some  vigor,  under  the  management  of  some  ex- 
ceptionally efficient  officer,  then  dozing  again,  or  splitting 
up  into  smaller  local  groups. 

But  in  1852  H.  A.  Dyer  prepared  a  bill  which  was 
passed,  incorporating  The  State  Agricultural  Society  and 
wrote  its  constitution  which  was  adopted  in  June  of  that 
year.  The  first  annual  meeting  was  held  on  Jan.  11th, 
1854.  The  aim  of  the  Society  is  thus  explained:  "The 
Society  seeks  to  disseminate  a  knowledge  of  agricultural 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  357 

science  among  farmers  by  encouraging  the  institution  of 
clubs  in  the  several  towns  where  the  experience  of  prac- 
tical men  may  be  gathered  and  the  theories  of  scientific 
men  discussed  and  subjected  to  experiment  by  members. 

The  Society  also  recommends  the  use  of  elementary 
science  books  in  common  schools,  the  preparation  of 
teachers  in  normal  schools  for  instruction  in  these  studies 
and  gathering  the  products  of  agriculture  in  this  State 
and  bringing  men  together  to  enjoy  an  annual  harvest 
festival."  There  appears  to  have  been  a  federation  of 
county  agricultural  societies,  each  of  which  chose  a  dele- 
gate to  sit  as  a  member  of  the  executive  committee.  The 
first  fair  was  held  in  New  Haven  in  1854  at  which  pre- 
miums of  $3,500  were  offered.  Subsequent  fairs  of  this 
Society  were  held  annually  in  New  Haven  and  Hartford 
and  one  at  least  in  Bridgeport. 

From  1854  till  1S59  this  Society  printed  a  report  of 
its  Transactions.  It  is  said  that  these  publications  con- 
tinued till  1867,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  them. 
Besides  some  reports  of  the  proceedings  and  fairs  of  the 
other  agricultural  societies,  they  contain  notable  papers 
on  various  agricultural  subjects.  For  example,  in  1855 
Prof.  John  A.  Porter  offers  a  plan  for  an  agricultural 
school.  In  1856  is  a  paper  by  T.  S.  Gold,  The  Natural 
Flora  of  a  District  Indicates  its  Natural  Capacity.  The 
first  of  Prof.  S.  W.  Johnson's  reports  on  Commercial 
Fertilizers  was  published  in  the  Transactions  of  1856, 
followed  by  further  reports  in  the  two  following  years. 
In  the  report  of  1858  he  published  an  Essay  on  Peat, 
Muck  and  Commercial  Fertilizers  which  was  the  basis 
of  his  book  on  Peat  and  its  Uses,  long  the  standard  au- 
thority on  that  subject.  In  1856  there  is  an  interesting 
paper  by  H.  A.  Dyer  on  Tobacco. 


358  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Probably  one  result  of  the  discussions  of  these  agri- 
cultural societies  was  the  testing  of  various  old  world 
crops  and  plants;  lucerne,  vetches,  spelt,  rape,  poppies, 
madder,  woad,  etc.,  most  of  which  were  soon  found  to 
be  of  little  or  no  value  in  this  State.  Alfalfa  and  rape 
still  have  consideration  and  occasional  patches  of  alfalfa 
still  found  in  headlands  and  fence  corners,  are  rehcs  of 
tests  made  long  ago. 

Incidentally  should  be  mentioned  the  small  local 
"Farmers  Clubs"  which  were  most  numerous  in  the  last 
quarter  of  the  century  and  were  to  the  neighborhood 
what  the  Agricultural  Society  was  to  the  county. 

The  first  Farmers  Club  of  which  record  is  found  was 
organized  in  Middletown  about  1842.  It  was  to  hold  six 
meetings  between  October  and  May.  "No  question  is  to 
be  discussed  but  such  as  shall  immediately  relate  to  agri- 
culture." 

Many  of  these  agricultural  societies  still  exist,  but  the 
sole  purpose  of  most  of  them  is  to  hold  an  agricultural 
fair  each  year,  offering  premiums  which  are  paid  in  part 
by  a  state  appropriation. 

(At  this  writing,  1924,  thirty-nine  fairs  have  assigned 
dates  for  the  present  year.)  The  State  Agricultural  So- 
ciety is  still  in  existence  and  holds  an  annual  show,  but 
it  has  greater  influence  in  popularizing  horse  racing  and 
the  attractions  of  a  midway  than  in  promoting  agricul- 
ture. Yet  in  the  Fifties  this  society  was  very  active  and 
became  the  forerunner  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture 
which  was  for  a  long  time  the  single  rallying  point  of 
farmers. 

The  Board  of  Agriculture.  This  Board  was  in- 
corporated by  the  General  Assembly  at  the  May  session 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  359 

of  1866.  It  was  made  up  of  the  Governor,  one  person 
appointed  from  each  County  by  the  agricuhural  societies 
which  received  an  annual  bounty  from  the  State  and  four 
appointed  by  the  Governor  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate. 
The  Board  met  and  organized  on  August  1st,  1866.  The 
Governor  was  elected  president,  E.  H.  Hyde,  vice-presi- 
dent and  T.  S.  Gold,  secretary.  The  Board  was  to  in- 
vestigate such  subjects  as  it  thought  proper  relating  to 
improvements  in  agriculture  and  horticulture,  to  investi- 
:gate  and  regulate  returns  of  Agricultural  Societies  and 
make  report  on  them  and  to  inquire  into  the  wants  and 
methods  of  practical  husbandry,  encouraging  the  estab- 
lishment of  farmers  clubs,  agricultural  libraries  and 
reading  rooms,  and  to  disseminate  useful  informa- 
tion in  agriculture,  by  means  of  lectures  and  otherwise. 
The  first  of  its  public  meetings  was  held  Jan.  8,  9,  and  10, 
1867,  in  New  Haven. 

The  Board  of  Agriculture  proved  to  be  the  organiza- 
tion which  was  most  needed  and  most  effective  in  pro- 
tQoting  all  agricultural  interests. 

Its  annual  meetings  brought  together  all  the  leading 
experts  in  agricultural  science,  the  leaders  in  agricultural 
practice  within  the  State  and  large  numbers  of  interested 
farmers.  The  latest  work  of  experimenters,  the  wisest 
experience  of  practical  farmers,  discussion,  and  oppor- 
tunity for  questioning  by  anyone  in  the  audience  —  all 
these  things  gave  tremendous  interest  and  importance  to 
the  meetings  and  particular  value  to  the  reports  of  them. 

The  meetings  of  this  Board  were  also  the  birthplace 
of  legislation  in  the  interest  of  agriculture  and  of  agri- 
cultural institutions  like  the  Connecticut  Agricultural 
Station,  The  Storrs  Agricultural  Station,  the  Storrs 
Agricultural   School  and  the  Connecticut  Agricultural 


360  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

College.  All  these  projects  were  discussed  in  advance 
in  the  winter  meetings  and  the  opinion  of  the  farming 
public  obtained. 

"In  no  other  state,"  said  Prof.  Atwater  "has  so  much 
been  done  for  the  application  of  chemistry  to  agriculture 
as  has  been  done  in  Connecticut  through  the  agency  of 
the  Board  of  Agriculture." 

It  would  carry  us  too  far  to  recite  the  subjects  treated 
at  these  meetings  which  have  been  held  annually,  with 
possibly  one  exception,  ever  since.  It  is  certain  that  the 
reports  of  proceedings  in  the  earlier  years  are  everywhere 
regarded  as  the  most  valuable  of  all  similar  reports  and 
have  been  of  the  greatest  help  in  the  improvement  of 
Connecticut  farming.  Especial  praise  is  due  to  the  serv- 
ice rendered  by  T.  S.  Gold,  the  secretary  of  the  Board 
during  a  long  series  of  years,  for  his  most  wise  and  effi- 
cient management  of  the  meetings. 

The  Board  was  abolished  by  resolution  of  the  General 
Assembly  on  July  21st,  1870,  but  in  1871  The  State 
Board  of  Agriculture  was  again  incorporated  by  the  same 
body.  The  new  act  of  incorporation  is  quite  like  the  old 
except  that  wider  powers  were  conferred  on  the  board. 

The  Board  could  quarantine  animals  having  infectious 
diseases,  enter  premises  where  such  diseases  were  present 
or  suspected  and  make  necessary  regulations  to  prevent 
a  spread  of  the  disease  and  to  appoint  three  commissioners 
on  diseases  of  domestic  animals  and  delegate  to  them  the 
powers  of  the  Board.  The  Board  elected  besides  a  presi- 
dent, vice-president,  secretary  and  treasurer,  a  veterinary 
surgeon,  entomologist,  botanist  and  chemist.  Thus  con- 
stituted, the  Board  continued  to  be  active  in  providing 
for  discussions  of  agricultural  improvement  and  for  in- 
formation both  from  scientific  experts  and  from  leaders 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  361 

in  agricultural  practice.  In  1897  the  Assembly  reor- 
ganized the  Board,  providing  that  its  eight  members 
should  be  appointed  by  the  Assembly,  one  from  each 
county,  rather  than  as  before,  by  the  agricultural  so- 
cieties of  the  State. 

Two  offshoots  of  the  Board  have  had  a  very  vigorous 
and  helpful  life :  On  April  10th,  1889,  was  incorporated 
the  Connecticut  Dairymen's  Association.  A  brief  report 
of  its  meeting  in  January,  1892,  25  pages,  states  that  this 
is  the  eleventh  annual  meeting. 

It  then  had  45  life  members  and  43  annual  members. 
It  must  therefore  have  been  in  existence  for  eight  years 
before  its  incorporation. 

It  has  yearly  held  a  general  meeting  of  dairymen  and 
has  published  valuable  annual  reports.  It  has  also  held 
dairy  institutes  and  farm  meetings  about  the  State.  In 
1900  it  had  99  life  members  and  69  annual  members. 

The  Board  of  Agriculture  had  a  pomologist  and  at  its 
annual  meetings  were  many  discussions  of  interest  to 
orchardists ;  but  as  fruit  growing  increased  in  importance 
within  the  State,  the  growers  desired  more  opportunity 
for  discussion  and  promotion  of  their  interests. 

A  convention  of  fruit  growers,  called  in  1891,  or- 
ganized the  Connecticut  Pomological  Society.  This  So- 
ciety, which  in  1923  numbered  483  members,  has  for 
many  years  held  annual  meetings  with  fruit  exhibits 
which  are  largely  attended,  frequent  field  meetings  dur- 
ing the  summers  and  farm  institutes  in  all  parts  of  the 
State.  It  has  been  the  chief  agency  in  promoting  the  in- 
terests of  fruit  growers. 

The  Cream  Hill  Agricultural  School.  The  use- 
fulness of  technical  schools  of  agriculture  was  anticipated 
long  before  their  establishment.    A  debate  in  Yale  Col- 


362  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

lege  in  1789  is  noted  on  the  question :  ''Whether  it  would 
be  best  to  introduce  agriculture  into  colleges  as  a  classical 
study?" 

In  1832  an  effort  was  made  to  establish  The  Litchfield 
Agricultural  High  School  and  the  corporation  of  Goshen 
Academy  was  asked  to  turn  over  the  Academy  to  the 
promoters  of  the  scheme,  but  they  were  refused  and  the 
plan  failed  (29).  In  1842  the  Connecticut  Farmers  Ga- 
zette announced  that  Rev.  J.  B.  Noble  proposes  soon  to 
open  an  agricultural  institute  in  Bridgeport.  No  further 
notice  of  it  has  been  found. 

Three  years  later,  in  1845,  The  Cream  Hill  Agricul- 
tural School  was  established  at  West  Cornwall  and  con- 
ducted by  Dr.  S.  L.  Gold,  for  years  the  principal  physi- 
cian in  Goshen,  who  had  recently  removed  to  his  farm  in 
West  Cornwall,  and  his  son,  Theodore  S.  Gold,  (Yale, 
1838),  who,  throughout  his  long  life  was  an  inspiring 
leader  in  the  promotion  of  Connecticut  agriculture.  The 
prospectus  of  the  school  is  in  part : 

"The  plan  of  this  institution  is  to  receive  a  select  and 
limited  number  of  pupils,  under  the  superintendence  of 
well  qualified  teachers,  to  be  fitted  for  college,  or  any  of 
the  useful  pursuits  of  life. 

"This  school  embraces  two  important  departments  of 
instruction.  First:  Thorough  attention  to  the  various 
elementary  and  scientific  branches  taught  at  the  best 
academic  institutions.  Second :  Both  scientific  and  prac- 
tical instructions  in  Agriculture  and  Horticulture,  em- 
bracing the  most  approved  method  of  tillage,  rearing  of 
stock,  cultivation  of  trees,  the  laying  out  of  grounds,  or- 
namental gardening,  chemical  analysis  of  soils,  composts, 
etc.  A  portion  of  each  day  will  be  allotted  to  these  sub- 
jects, so  that  the  pupil  may  become  a  scientific  and  prac- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  363 

tical  farmer.  The  farm,  containing  200  acres,  with  con- 
venient buildings,  situated  on  Cream  Hill,  surrounded  by 
a  picturesque  country  scenery,  furnishes  a  location  un- 
rivalled for  healthfulness  and  freedom  from  immoral  ten- 
dencies and  peculiarly  fitted  for  such  an  institution. 

"The  Housatonic  railroad  furnishes  daily  access  to 
New  York.  The  students  will  become  members  of  the 
family  of  the  instructors.  A  parental  supervision  will  at 
all  times  be  exercised  over  each  individual. 

"All  will  be  treated  with  kindness  and  every  attention 
rendered,  with  affectionate  regard  to  health,  deportment 
and  morals. 

"The  institution  will  be  conducted  by  Samuel  L.  Gold, 
Theodore  S.  Gold  and  Thomas  R.  Button.  There  will  be 
two  terms  in  each  year;  the  first  commencing  the  first 
Wednesday  in  May,  and  terminating  the  first  Wednes- 
day in  November;  the  second  from  the  first  Wednesday 
in  December  to  the  first  Wednesday  in  April. 

"Terms :  The  pupils  will  be  furnished  with  tuition, 
board,  fuel,  lights,  washing,  privileges  of  the  library  and 
riding,  at  $200  a  year,  one-half  to  be  paid  at  the  beginning 
of  each  term. 

"West  Cornwall,  Conn.  March  31,  1845." 

In  all,  272  pupils  attended  this  school  from  its  opening 
in  1845  until  it  was  closed  in  1869  on  account  of  the 
pressure  of  other  business.  It  opened  with  ten  pupils. 
After  that  the  number  ranged  from  twelve  to  thirty-one, 
an  average  of  more  than  twenty-two,  probably  all  that  the 
accommodations  would  permit. ^^ 

21  Prof.  George  J.  Brush  was  one  of  the  earliest  students.  He  planned  to 
enter  a  commercial  establishment  in  New  York  City  but  here  acquired  an 
interest  in  chemistry  and  particularly  in  mineralogy  the  pursuit  of  which 
became  his  lifework  until  overshadowed  by  his  administrative  work  as 
Director  of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  and  the  Agricultural  College  of 
the  state. 


364  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

From  the  catalogue  of  1849  we  learn  "Each  pupil  cul- 
tivates a  garden  of  about  130  square  yards;  is  instructed 
in  laying  out,  planting  and  the  application  of  manures. 
Small  premiums  are  awarded  for  the  best  gardens.  Ample 
opportunity  is  afforded  each  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
general  farming,  tending  and  rearing  the  various  kinds 
of  stock,  etc." 

There  is  nothing  in  the  catalogues  to  show  any  list  of 
teachers. 

Mr.  Button  dropped  out  soon  after  the  school  was  es- 
tablished and  most,  if  not  all,  instruction  was  given  by 
Dr.  Gold  and  his  son. 

The  Storrs  Agricultural  School.  In  January, 
1881  Messrs.  Augustus  and  Charles  Storrs  offered  to  the 
vState  180  acres  of  land  and  various  buildings  in  the  town 
of  Mansfield  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  and  main- 
taining an  agricultural  school.  The  buildings  had  been 
used  previously  as  a  home  and  school  for  the  orphans  of 
soldiers  in  the  Civil  War.  The  offer  was  accepted  and  the 
Storrs  School  was  established. 

Its  object,  as  set  forth  in  the  act  of  establishment,  was 
"The  education  of  boys  ...  in  such  branches  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  as  shall  tend  to  increase  their  proficiency 
in  the  business  of  agriculture." 

A  part  of  their  time  was  to  be  spent  in  classroom  work 
and  a  part  in  the  practical  work  of  the  farm.  The  school 
continued  for  twelve  years  with  fair  success.  During  this 
time  its  attendance  ranged  from  40  to  63.  In  1893,  by 
act  of  the  Assembly,  its  purpose  was  changed  and  it  was 
renamed  The  Storrs  Agricultural  College. 

The  Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of 
Connecticut.    In  1840  Justus  von  Liebig  issued  his 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  365 

work  on  Chemistry  in  its  Relations  to  Agriculture  which 
started  a  great  agricultural  revolution  and  drew  the  at- 
tention of  chemists  throughout  the  world  to  the  prob- 
lems of  plant  production. 

Between  1840  and  1850  Prof.  Silliman  at  Yale  gave 
instruction  in  these  matters.  In  1846  John  P.  Norton, 
the  son  of  a  Connecticut  farmer,  after  training  as  a 
farmer  and  some  years  of  study  at  Yale  and  at  Boston 
and  later  in  Scotland,  (where  he  won  a  prize  of  fifty 
sovereigns,  given  by  the  Highland  Society  of  Scotland 
for  the  best  essay  on  the  oat  plant),  opened  a  laboratory 
at  Yale  in  connection  with  Silliman  "for  the  purpose  of 
practical  instruction  in  the  applications  of  science  to  the 
arts  and  agriculture." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Sheffield  Scientific 
School  which  first  gave  the  degree  of  Ph.  B.  in  1851. 
Here  Prof.  Johnson  studied  and  began  the  analysis  of 
commercial  fertilizers  and  detection  of  frauds  in  their 
sale,  and  for  many  years  this  was  the  only  place  connected 
with  any  college  in  America  where  that  means  of  pro- 
tecting farmers  was  systematically  followed. 

Norton,  whose  work  was  cut  short  by  tuberculosis,  was 
succeeded  by  Prof.  John  A.  Porter. 

In  the  meantime  Joseph  E.  Sheffield  made  a  gift  of 
$50,000  for  the  endowment  of  the  School  and  during  the 
rest  of  his  life  gave  from  ten  thousand  to  twenty  thousand 
dollars  yearly  to  its  support  and  made  it  as  one  of  his 
children  in  the  final  division  of  his  estate.  In  all  he  must 
have  given  more  than  a  million  dollars  to  its  support. 

Under  the  management  of  Prof.  Norton  there  was 
given  the  first  course  of  Yale  Agricultural  Lectures, 

The  views  in  which  this  course  originated  are  given  by 
which  began  Feb.  1,  1860,  and  closed  Feb.  25. 


366  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Prof.  Porter  as  follows :  The  importance  of  new  agencies 
for  the  diffusion  of  agricultural  knowledge  is  emphasized. 

"Shall  we  wait  for  the  establishment  by  government 
of  great  agricultural  institutions,  similar  to  those  in  Eu- 
rope? Such  institutions  are  the  most  obvious  and  essen- 
tial wants  of  our  times,  but  a  public  and  general  opinion 
of  their  utility  and  necessity  must  be  created  before  either 
our  state  or  national  governments  will  seriously  consider 
their  establishment." 

Porter  proposes  "the  enlistment  of  practical  men,  who 
are  not  professional  teachers,  in  the  work  of  instruction 
and  their  combination  in  such  numbers,  that  a  small  con- 
tribution of  time  and  labor  from  each  shall  make  a  suffi- 
cient aggregate  to  meet  the  object  in  view." 

The  experiment  was  made  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Yale  Scientific  School.  At  this  course  of  lectures  about 
350  students  were  registered  and  some  500  in  attendance ; 
172  from  Connecticut,  23  from  Massachusetts,  35  from 
New  York  and  a  smaller  number  from  13  other  states. 

Three  lectures  were  given  daily,  morning,  afternoon 
and  evening.  The  subjects  and  lectures  were : 

Agricultural  Chemistry Prof.  S.  W.  Johnson 

Entomology Dr.  Asa  Fitch  of  New  York 

Vegetable  Physiology Daniel  C.  Eaton 

Vegetable  Pathology Chauncey  E.  Goodrich 

Pear  Culture Marshall  P.  Wilder 

Grapes Dr.  C.  W.  Grant 

Berries R.  G.  Pardee 

Fruit  Trees P.  Barry 

Fruits Lewis  F.  Allen 

Arboriculture Geo.  B.  Emerson 

The  Honey  Bee Mr.  Ouimby 

Drainage Henry  F.  French 

Grasses .- John  S.  Gould 

Agricultural  Associations Mason  C.  Weld 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  367 

Cereals Joseph  Harris 

Root  Crops T.  S.  Gold 

Tobacco  and  Hops W.  H.  Brewer 

Sandy  Soils Levi  Bartlett 

English  Agriculture L.  H.  Tucker 

Profits  of  American  Farming Josiah  Quincy,  Jr. 

Cattle Cassius  M.  Clay 

Stock  Breeding  in  the  United  States Lewis  F.  Allen 

The  Dairy Charles  L.  Flint 

Horses Sanford  Howard 

Breeding  and  Training  Horses Dr.  D.  F.  Gulliver 

Sheep T.  S.  Gold 

The  course  proved  to  be  very  popular  and  stimulated 
the  desire  for  regular  courses  of  agricultural  instruction. 
"Mr.  Barry  whitling  at  his  pear  tree  before  the  audience 
is  worth  a  whole  treatise  on  grafting  and  pruning.  Mr. 
Gold's  discourse  on  sheep,  interspersed  with  the  bleating 
of  his  Cotswolds  and  punctuated  with  the  black  noses  of 
his  Southdowns,  is  worth  a  volume  on  mutton  and  wool."" 

This  Institute  was  not  continued.  In  the  next  year 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  made  it  seem  unwise  at  that 
time  and  the  establishment  of  the  Agricultural  College 
later  made  it  less  needed.  But  there  is  much  evidence 
that  greatly  increased  interest  in  scientific  agriculture 
immediately  followed.  "In  concluding,  Mason  Weld 
strongly  advocated  the  establishment  at  once  of  an  agri- 
cultural farm  in  connection  with  a  thoroughly  furnished 
laboratory,  referring  to  the  debt  the  world  owes  Lawes 
and  Gilbert  for  their  experiments  at  Rothamstead  and  to 
the  weighty  results  developed  by  the  investigations  in 
France  and  Germany  which  latter  country  has  now  in 
operation  more  than  forty  experiment  stations  under  the 

22  Brief  abstracts  of  these  lectures  are  given  in  the  New  England  Home- 
stead for  the  year  1860. 


368  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

management  of  competent  men  of  science  in  connection 
with  practical  farmers." 

Two  years  later  the  Morrill  Act  was  passed  by  Con- 
gress which  provided  for  the  establishment  of  an  Agri- 
cultural College  in  every  state. 

By  this  act  a  grant  of  public  land  was  made  to  each 
state  for  "the  endowment,  support  and  maintenance  of 
at  least  one  college  where  the  leading  object  shall  be, 
without  excluding  other  scientific  and  classical  studies, 
and  including  military  tactics,  to  teach  such  branches  of 
learning  as  are  related  to  agriculture  and  the  mechanic 
arts  in  such  manner  as  the  legislatures  of  the  states  may 
respectively  prescribe  in  order  to  promote  the  liberal  and 
practical  education  of  the  industrial  classes  in  the  several 
pursuits  and  professions  of  life." 

The  yearly  grant  to  Connecticut  yielded  an  income  of 
only  six  or  seven  thousand  dollars  —  a  rather  scanty  sum 
for  the  establishment  of  an  institution  which  should  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  act. 

Yale  College  was  the  only  institution  which  was  at  all 
capable  of  using  the  grant.  It  was  already  equipped  for 
such  work  and  was  giving  instruction  in  all  the  branches 
of  study  required  under  the  act  except  in  military  tactics. 
The  state  having  accepted  the  grant,  in  1863  gave  the 
income  to  the  Yale  corporation  to  be  devoted  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  for  the  maintenance 
of  such  instruction  as  shall  carry  out  the  intent  of  Con- 
gress. 

The  School  was  to  furnish  gratuitous  tuition  to  such 
a  number  of  pupils  that  their  tuition,  charged  at  the  usual 
rate,  would  equal  one-half  of  the  income  of  the  fund.  The 
award  of  these  scholarships  was  made  by  a  committee, 
whose  appointment  was  provided  in  the  act. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  369 

The  State  made  a  perpetual  contract  with  Yale  College 
and  established  it  as  the  Agricultural  and  Mechanical 
College  of  the  State,  but  contributed  nothing  more  to  its 
support.  The  government  fund  was,  however,  supple- 
mented by  generous  gifts  from  Joseph  E.  Sheffield  as 
has  been  noted  on  a  previous  page.  In  1890  Congress 
passed  an  act  for  the  more  complete  endowment  of  the 
Agricultural  Colleges  by  which  they  eventually  received 
an  additional  sum  of  $25,000  annually.  At  this  time  there 
were  eighty  students  in  the  Sheffield  School  on  the  agri- 
cultural scholarships. 

As  soon  as  this  appropriation  was  made,  various  col- 
leges of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts  were  bitterly 
attacked  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not  fulfilling  the 
object  of  their  existence  and  were  maintaining  colleges 
of  too  high  grade  and  unsuitable  requirements  for  the 
sons  of  farmers.  As  a  consequence  of  this  movement  the 
General  Assembly  in  1893  transferred  the  government 
fund  to  the  Storrs  Agricultural  School  in  the  town  of 
Mansfield,  at  the  same  time  changing  its  name  to  the 
Storrs  Agricultural  College. 

A  commission  appointed  to  decide  on  the  nature  of  the 
contract  between  the  State  and  the  Sheffield  School 
awarded  the  latter  $154,000  damages  on  account  of  the 
violation  of  the  perpetual  contract  by  the  State.  The 
Storrs  Agricultural  College  had  at  this  time  an  enroll- 
ment of  about  one  hundred  students  and  its  courses  were 
officially  opened  to  women.  In  1889  the  name  of  the  in- 
stitution was  changed  to  the  Connecticut  Agricultural 
College. 

The  College  now  has  an  attendance  in  all  departments 
of  484.   Its  activities  fall  into  three  divisions;  the  Resi- 


370  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

dent  Instruction,  the  Storrs  Agricultural  Station  and  the 
Extension  Service  which  are  noticed  later. 
The  Resident  Instruction  offers: 

1.  A  four  year  course  in  Agriculture  leading  to  the 
bachelor's  degree.  Graduates  of  high  schools,  accredited 
by  the  State  Board  of  Education  are  entitled  to  enter  this 
course. 

2.  A  four  year  course  in  Home  Economics,  for  young 
women,  leading  to  the  bachelor's  degree.  Open  to  grad- 
uates of  high  schools  as  above. 

3.  A  two  year  course  in  Agriculture,  divided  into 
four  ten-week  terms.  Open  to  those  who  have  had  a 
common  school  education.  Those  completing  the  four 
terms'  work  are  given  a  diploma. 

4.  A  summer  school  in  Home  Economics  for  those 
who  desire  teacher  training  in  that  subject. 

5.  Short  course  in  Agriculture  is  given  to  men  and 
women  of  the  State  who  can  be  away  from  home  duties 
for  a  short  time  only. 

Agricultural  Extension  Work  — 
County  Farm  Bureaus 

On  May  8,  1914  a  national  system  of  co-operative  ex- 
tension work  in  agriculture  and  home  economics  was  pro- 
vided by  the  so-called  Smith-Lever  bill.  By  it  Congress 
appropriated  $480,000,  providing  an  annual  increase  for 
eight  years  until  the  total  sum  annually  appropriated 
reached  $4,580,000.  Congress  has  since  appropriated  an 
additional  $1,300,000  for  the  same  purpose  as  the  Smith- 
Lever  fund  and  a  further  appropriation  of  about  $1,300,- 
000  for  co-operative  demonstration  work. 

In  order  to  secure  Federal  Smith-Lever   funds,  the 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  371 

several  states  must  appropriate  an  equal  amount  for  the 
support  of  extension  work. 

These  funds  are  divided  between  the  states  on  a  basis 
of  their  rural  population.  Under  these  several  acts  Con- 
necticut receives  $68,950.09  from  Federal  funds  which 
is  supplemented  by  appropriations  from  the  State  amount- 
ing at  this  date  to  $75,000  annually. 

The  Extension  Service  is,  therefore,  part  of  a  national 
system  of  agricultural  education  estabHshed  by  Federal 
laws.  It  is  a  division  of  the  Agricultural  College  which 
is  carrying  information  and  instruction  in  improved 
methods  of  farming  and  home  making  to  the  people  of 
the  State,  through  demonstrations,  meetings,  letters,  news 
stories,  campaigns,  field  trips  and  farm  and  home  visits. 
Further  than  this  it  is  the  work  of  the  extension  service 
to  interest  farmers  and  home  makers  in  putting  these 
improved  methods  into  practice.  It  is  concerned  as  much 
with  assisting  in  solving  the  problems  of  marketing  as 
it  is  with  solving  the  problems  of  production. 

The  extension  work  is  carried  on  by  a  staff  of  men  and 
women.  Some  of  these  are  specialists  in  the  various 
branches  of  agriculture  and  home  making,  such  as  dairy- 
ing, fruit  growing,  poultry  raising,  nutrition,  clothing, 
etc.,  who  work  throughout  the  .State  and  have  headquar- 
ters at  Storrs.  The  other  extension  workers  are  county 
representatives  of  the  Extension  Service  and  are  known 
as  County  Agents,  doing  work  in  agriculture  with  adults ; 
Home  Demonstration  Agents,  working  with  women  on 
home  problems;  and  County  Club  Agents,  the  latter 
carrying  work  with  boys  and  girls,  commonly  known  as 
club  work. 

Practically  all  the  work  is  carried  out  in  conjunction 
with  the  county  workers.  The  Extension  service  reaches 


372  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

the  entire  family;  men,  women,  boys  and  girls.  The 
specialist  studies  the  industry  which  he  represents,  in 
order  to  learn  its  problems  and  recommends  the  improve- 
ments which  should  be  encouraged  and  the  methods  which 
should  be  used  in  extension  teaching.  Co-operating  with 
the  Extension  Service  are  the  County  Farm  Bureaus  in 
each  county,  supported  by  membership  fees,  voluntary 
contributions  and  when  these  amount  to  $1,000,  by  grants 
from  the  college  and  State.  In  1921  seven  Farm  Bureaus 
formed  a  state  federation  and  through  it  joined  the  Amer- 
ican Farm  Bureau  Federation,  a  national  organization, 
maintaining  a  representative  in  Washington  and  interest- 
ing itself  in  legislative  questions  which  affect  the  farming 
interests. 

The  Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station.  The  object  in  establishing  this  station  was  to 
apply  the  methods  of  scientific  research  in  solving  those 
problems  of  the  farm  which  needed  the  time,  equipment 
and  technical  knowledge  which  the  farmer  himself  could 
not  supply. 

Connecticut  was  the  first  State  to  establish  such  a 
station  after  many  years  of  effort  to  convince  the  public 
of  the  need. 

The  demonstration  which  Connecticut  made  of  its  value 
quickly  induced  other  states  to  create  similar  stations  and 
now  they  are  found  in  every  state,  territory  and  insular 
possession  of  the  United  States. 

A  brief  notice  of  the  development  of  the  idea  for 
twenty  years  from  the  early  fifties  is  interesting.  In  1853 
and  the  following  years,  articles  by  Prof.  S.  W.  Johnson 
of  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  published  in  the  Country 
Gentleman,  discussed  the  contributions  of  science  to  agri- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  373 

culture,  the  feeding  of  farm  animals,  food  for  plants, 
superphosphate  of  lime,  etc.,  calling  attention  to  the  ap- 
plications of  science  to  agriculture  and  perhaps  for  the 
first  time  in  this  country,  to  the  quality  of  commercial 
fertilizers.  Such  fertilizers  were  then,  for  the  first  time 
coming  into  common  use,  extravagant  claims  for  their 
virtues  were  often  made  and  no  knowledge  of  their  com- 
position given;  there  was  danger  of  too  much  faith  in 
their  virtues  and  too  little  knowledge  of  their  proper  use. 
In  1856  Johnson's  exposures  of  fraud  in  fertilizers  led 
to  his  appointment  as  chemist  of  the  Connecticut  Agri- 
cultural Society  and  the  continuance  of  his  work  on  that 
subject. 

A  lecture  on  ''The  Relations  which  Exist  between  Sci- 
ence and  Agriculture,"  delivered  in  Albany,  in  1856  and 
published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  New  York  State 
Agricultural  Society,  excited  wide  interest  and  discus- 
sion. There  followed  almost  twenty  years  of  preaching 
and  teaching  by  Johnson  on  the  need  of  applying  to  the 
art  of  agriculture  the  teachings  of  natural  science.  His 
laboratory  work  as  chemist  of  the  State  Board  of  Agri- 
culture and  the  publication  of  its  results  in  the  annual  re- 
ports stirred  the  desire  of  farmers  to  enlist  the  aid  of 
research  in  the  every  day  work  of  the  farm. 

Important  in  this  educational  work  were  his  two  books, 
How  Crops  Grow.  A  Treatise  on  the  Chemical  Composi- 
tion, Structure  and  Life  of  the  Plant,  for  all  Students  of 
Agriculture;  published  in  1868,  and  How  Crops  Feed, 
A  Treatise  on  the  Atmosphere  and  the  Soil  as  Related  to 
the  Nutrition  of  Agricultural  Plants,  published  in  1870. 
His  object,  as  stated  by  himself,  was  "to  digest  the  cum- 
brous mass  of  evidence  in  which  the  truths  of  vegetable 
nutrition  lie  buried  out  of  the  reach  of  the  ordinary  in- 


374  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

quirer  and  to  set  them  forth  in  proper  order  and  in  plain 
dress  for  their  legitimate  and  sober  uses." 

At  the  instance  of  von  Liebig  the  book  was  translated 
into  German  by  his  son.  It  was  reprinted  in  England, 
translated  into  Italian,  Russian,  Swedish  and  Japanese 
for  use  as  a  textbook  in  those  countries. 

Two  Connecticut  men,  Jared  Eliot  in  the  eighteenth 
and  S.  W.  Johnson  in  the  nineteenth  century  wrote  books 
on  scientific  agriculture,  which  probably  had  the  widest 
influence  on  farming  in  America  of  any  during  this 
period. 

In  1873  Prof.  W.  O.  Atwater  of  Wesleyan  University, 
a  former  pupil  and  assistant  of  Johnson's,  joined  in 
urging  the  establishment  in  the  State  of  an  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station  and  in  their  addresses  before  the 
Board  of  Agriculture  and  frequent  gatherings  of  farmers 
through  the  State  emphasized  the  advantage  and  need  of 
applying  to  the  art  of  farming  the  teachings  of  natural 
science  and  the  wisdom  of  providing  an  agency  whereby 
the  problems  of  the  farm,  which  the  farmer  had  neither 
the  time,  the  facilities,  or  the  expert  knowledge  to  solve 
for  himself,  could  be  studied  and  possibly  solved  by  ex- 
perts in  an  institution  specially  fitted  for  this  purpose. 

In  1874  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  at  the  recommenda- 
tion of  a  committee  through  its  chairman,  Prof.  Johnson 
appointed  a  permanent  committee  to  urge  on  farmers  and 
the  Legislature  the  immediate  establishment  of  an  agri- 
cultural station.  Later  this  committee  reported  that  a 
bill  for  this  purpose  had  been  introduced  into  the  General 
Assembly,  held  by  the  committee  of  the  Assembly  till 
near  the  close  of  the  session  and  then  reported,  recom- 
.mending  that  it  be  laid  over  to  the  next  session. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  375 

Again  in  the  Assembly  of  1875  the  attempt  was  made 
unsuccessfully. 

But  Mr.  Orange  Judd,  an  agricultural  editor  and  a 
trustee  of  Wesleyan  University,  urged  the  formation  of 
an  association  to  provide  money  for  an  agricultural  sta- 
tion by  private  subscription,  a  plan  which  was  contrary 
to  the  wishes  of  the  committee  of  the  Board  of  Agricul- 
ture. He  however,  secured  the  passage  of  the  following 
resolution  in  the  spring  of  1875,  thus  establishing  in  Con- 
necticut the  first  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  in 
America. 

To  Promote  Agricultural  Interests 

Whereas,  The  trustees  of  the  university  at  Middle- 
town  tender  the  free  use  of  laboratories  and  other  facili- 
ties for  establishing  and  carrying  on  an  experiment  sta- 
tion for  the  general  benefit  and  improvement  of  agricul- 
ture and  kindred  interests  of  the  State  of  Connecticut, 
be  it 

Resolved  by  this  Assembly,  That  the  sum  of  seven 
hundred  dollars  per  quarter  for  two  years,  is  hereby  ap- 
propriated to  the  University  located  at  Middletown, 
Middlesex  County,  to  be  used  in  employing  competent 
scientific  men  to  carry  on  the  work  appropriate  to  an 
agricultural  station. 

In  addition  to  this  appropriation  Mr.  Judd  subscribed 
one  thousand  dollars.  A  very  full  and  admirable  account 
of  the  whole  movement  is  given  in  "From  the  Letter 
Files  of  S.  W.  Johnson,"  edited  by  his  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth A.  Osborne. 

This  station  was  under  the  exclusive  control  of  the 
trustees   of   Wesleyan   University   and   an   impression, 


2>76  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

founded  upon  Mr.  Judd's  utterances  and  personal  atti- 
tude was  widespread  that  the  purpose  of  this  station  was 
for  the  analysis  of  commercial  fertilizers  alone.  Such 
however,  was  not  at  all  the  position  of  Prof.  Atwater, 
who  was  chosen  as  its  director.  In  his  first  report  he 
says :  "It  has  been  felt  from  the  first  that  more  abstract 
scientific  investigation  would  afford  not  only  the  proper, 
but  also  the  most  widely  and  permanently  useful  work 
of  an  agricultural  station.  Such  an  institution  will  be 
worthy  of  the  name  in  proportion  as  it  carries  on  accurate 
and  thorough  investigation  and  experiment  in  agricul- 
tural science." 

But  to  prove  to  the  farming  public  the  present  need  of 
an  agricultural  station  and  thus  to  secure  for  it  a  firmer 
and  more  liberal  basis,  stress  was  first  laid  on  the  situa- 
tion of  the  fertilizer  trade  —  a  continuation  of  Johnson's 
work  —  in  which  there  was  "bitter  need"  of  a  better  con- 
dition. In  the  two  following  years  a  large  part  of  the 
station  time  was  devoted  to  the  examination  of  fertilizers. 
Some  examinations  of  dairy  feed  were  also  made,  the 
testing  of  agricultural  seeds,  effects  of  nitrogenous  fer- 
tilizers on  the  growth  of  corn,  a  study  of  the  fertilizer 
needs  of  the  soil  of  the  Wallingford  plains,  etc. 

A  prominent  feature  of  the  station  work  was  co-op- 
erative experiments  with  fertilizers  on  lands  in  different 
parts  of  the  State  and  later,  under  Prof.  Atwater's  di- 
rections, in  several  other  States,  the  results  of  which  were 
printed  in  the  reports  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture, 
from  1877  to  1881.  Thus  a  new  agency  for  the  advance 
of  agriculture  was  founded  and  the  example  was  speedily 
followed  by  some  other  States. 

Five,  at  least  of  Prof.  Atwater's  assistants  in  this  work 
soon  became  workers  and  leaders  in  other  places ;  W.  Bal- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  Z77 

lentine,  Professor  of  Agriculture  in  the  Maine  Agricul- 
tural College;  E.  H.  Jenkins,  chemist  and  later  director 
of  the  Connecticut  station;  W.  H.  Jordan,  director  of 
the  Maine  and  then  for  many  years  director  of  the  New 
York,  (Geneva)  station;  A.  T.  Neale,  director  of  the 
New  Jersey  and  later  of  the  Delaware  station  and  C.  D. 
Woods,  director  of  the  Maine  station. 

Before  the  appropriation  for  the  station  had  expired 
the  General  Assembly  passed  "An  Act  Establishing  the 
Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,"  "for  the 
purpose  of  promoting  agriculture  by  scientific  investiga- 
tion and  experiment,"  and  granted  $5,000  annually  to  its 
support.  In  its  organization  this  station  differs  from  all 
others.  Besides  having  no  organic  connection  with  any 
agricultural  College  it  is  an  independent  unit  having  most 
of  the  rights  of  a  corporation,  with  power  to  sue  and  be 
sued,  to  receive  gifts  and  to  hold  property.  It  is  managed 
by  a  Board  of  Control,  consisting  of  the  Governor,  two 
appointed  by  the  Governor  and  one  each  by  the  State 
Board  of  Agriculture,  the  State  Agricultural  Society, 
Wesleyan  University  and  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School. 
The  director  is  ex  ojfi.cio  a  member.  Prof.  Johnson  was 
chosen  director  and  the  station  was  placed  at  New  Haven. 
As  it  was  not  possible  to  secure  permanent  quarters  from 
the  fund  appropriated,  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School  gave 
the  free  use  of  laboratory  and  office  room  until  1882 
when  the  State  provided  land  and  buildings  which  the 
station  has  occupied  ever  since.  In  1887  the  first  Federal 
aid  was  given  to  the  stations  of  the  United  States  by  the 
Hatch  Act  which  ultimately  provided  $15,000  to  each 
state  to  be  by  the  state  paid  to  such  institution  as  it  might 
designate,  the  "object  and  duty  of  the  station"  being  to 
conduct  original  researches  or  verify  experiments  on  the 


378  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

physiology  of  animals  and  plants.  The  General  Assembly 
gave  one-half  of  this  fund  to  the  Connecticut  Station  and 
half  to  the  newly  established  Storrs  Agricultural  Station 
to  be  noticed  later. 

In  1896,  by  the  Adams  Act  of  Congress,  $15,000  ad- 
ditional was  given  to  each  state  and  this  sum  was  likewise 
equally  divided  between  the  two  Connecticut  stations. 

This  appropriation  was  to  be  used  only  for  pure  re- 
search work,  a  restriction  which  has  greatly  helped  the 
more  fundamental  v/ork  of  all  the  stations.  The  appro- 
priations by  the  State  to  the  Connecticut  station  gradually 
increased  as  the  scope  of  its  work  and  the  demands  made 
upon  it  have  grown.  A  very  brief  notice  of  some  of  its 
labors  should  here  be  given  to  indicate  the  scope  and 
nature  of  it. 

It  taught  and  proved  by  field  trials  the  value  of  spray- 
ing for  the  protection  of  field  crops  and  orchards  from 
fungi  and  insects. 

It  has  studied  the  life  history  of  each  new  insect  and 
fungus  pest  as  it  has  appeared  and  the  best  methods  of 
fighting  it;  the  San  Jose  scale,  the  gyps}^  moth,  the  pine 
blister  rust,  the  elm  leaf  beetle,  etc. 

It  has  directed  the  work  of  mosquito  elimination  and 
accomplished  much  with  the  insufficient  means  at  its  dis- 
posal. 

By  its  inspection  and  reports  it  has  exposed  the  frauds 
in  food  and  fertilizers  and  drove  most  of  them  out  of  the 
State  before  the  Federal  Government  undertook  any  of 
that  work. 

As  a  part  of  that  work  it  has  examined  all  the  special 
foods  made  and  recommended  for  diabetic  patients  and 
the  reports  on  them  are  the  standard  reference  for  spe- 
cialists in  the  treatment  of  this  disease. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  379 

The  long"  continued  and  fruitful  researches  of  Dr.  Os- 
borne have  identified  and  showed  the  ultimate  and  struc- 
tural composition  and  properties  of  the  principal  vege- 
table proteins. 

An  inquiry  into  their  relative  nutritive  value  has  led 
to  extensive  studies  in  nutrition,  has  perfected  a  new 
and  most  fruitful  method  of  experiment  in  this  field,  has 
led  to  the  discovery  of  vitamines  and  studies  of  their  func- 
tion and  to  medical  studies  on  the  cause  of  rickets,  infer- 
tility, etc. 

The  study  of  plant  breeding  here  has  shown  the  futility 
of  certain  recommended  methods  of  inbreeding  and  selec- 
tion and  by  methods  first  adopted  here  has  produced  new 
and  improved  strains  of  corn  and  tobacco  and  has  demon- 
strated methods  of  developing  superior  strains  of  field 
crops  which  have  secured  general  recognition. 

It  substituted  for  the  very  unfair  method  of  payment 
of  cream  by  the  space,  the  Babcock  method  of  determin- 
ing and  paying  for  butter  fat  only,  by  adapting  it  for 
cream  gathering  creameries  and  proving  its  value. 

It  made,  at  the  request  of  dairymen,  a  comparison  of 
economy  between  the  gravity  and  the  separator  systems 
of  raising  cream  for  butter  making  creameries. 

It  introduced  into  the  State  the  successful  growing  of 
shade  tobacco  and  the  method  of  fermentation  in  bulk 
and  by  its  very  elaborate  field  tests  with  fertilizers  has 
greatly  advanced  the  tobacco  growing  industry  in  the 
State. 

The  station  established  an  experimental  forest  for  the 
study  of  forest  problems,  aided  in  the  planting  of  private 
and  corporation  forests,  besides  giving  advice  by  ad- 
dresses and  field  demonstrations  in  the  management  of 
the  farmer's  wood  lot. 


380  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

These  illustrations,  by  no  means  a  summary,  give  some 
idea  of  the  range  of  the  station's  work  and  show  how  it 
has  gradually  become  a  public  service  agency.  While  de- 
signed solely  for  the  benefit  of  agriculture  and  while  its 
main  effort  is  directed  to  that  end,  circumstances  have 
drawn  it  in  several  directions  into  the  service  of  the  whole 
community. 

The  station  has  also  from  its  staff,  furnished  teachers 
and  research  men  to  other  states  and  institutions.  Some 
of  them  are : 

H.  P.  Armsby,  Professor  of  Agricultural  Chemistry 
in  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  Director  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Station  and  later  Director  of  the  Pennsylvania  Bu- 
reau of  Animal  Nutrition. 

E.  M.  East,  Professor  of  Genetics  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

W.  Mulford,  Professor  of  Forestry,  University  of 
California. 

S.  W.  Spring,  Professor  of  Forestry,  Cornell  Uni- 
versity. 

R.  Thaxter,  Professor  of  Cryptogamic  Botany,  Har- 
vard University. 

H.  L.  Wells,  Professor  of  Analytical  Chemistry,  Yale 
University. 

E.  H.  Farrington,  Professor  of  Dairy  Husbandry, 
Wisconsin  Agricultural  College. 

The  Storrs  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 
In  accepting  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Hatch  Act  the 
General  Assembly  provided  that  "the  farm  attached  to 
the  Storrs  Agricultural  School  may  be  used  as  an  experi- 
mental farm  for  the  purposes  specified"  in  the  Federal 
act  and  also  provided  that  one-half  of  the  Federal  ap- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  381 

propriation  which  came  to  the  State  should  be  used  by  the 
trustees  of  the  school  under  the  provisions  of  the  act. 

Prof.  W.  O.  Atwater  was  chosen  director  and  during 
the  eighteen  years  of  his  service,  the  field  and  farm  work 
of  the  station  was  done  at  the  Storrs  Agricultural  School 
and  the  more  purely  scientific  investigations  were  carried 
on  in  the  laboratories  of  Wesleyan  University.  In  1903 
the  station  w^as  reorganized  and  its  office  was  removed  to 
Storrs  where  a  small  building  was  erected  for  its  use. 
Prof.  Atwater  resigned  his  office  and  Prof.  L.  A,  Clinton 
became  his  successor. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  work  of  this  station  up  to 
this  time  was  that  of  Atwater  and  Woods  which  proved 
the  assimilation  of  free  nitrogen  by  leguminous  crops.  It 
is  believed  that  this  work,  done  in  1881  and  1882  supplied, 
by  convincing  evidence,  the  first  proof  of  this  function  of 
the  legumes.  It  was  reported  briefly  at  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science 
in  1881  and  at  the  meetings  of  the  American  and  British 
Associations  in  1882,  and  in  detail  in  the  American 
Chemical  Journal  in  1885.  Before  the  latter  date  the 
more  elaborate  work  of  European  investigators  on  the 
same  subject  was  published  in  scientific  journals. 

The  studies  on  the  composition  and  value  of  foods  for 
human  populations  on  w^hich  Atwater  was  engaged  in 
1877,  the  introduction  of  the  bomb  calorimeter  about 
1890,  of  a  respiration  calorimeter  in  1896,  studies  of  di- 
etaries with  determination  of  energy  values,  digestion  ex- 
periments with  animals,  (1896),  mark  the  beginning  in 
this  country  of  the  studies  of  foods  and  the  food  require- 
ments of  populations  which  now  fill  a  large  place  in  the 
public  regard  and  found  a  very  special  value  in  the  world 
war.   Much  of  this  work,  reported  in  the  publications  of 


382  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

the  Storrs  station  was  done  with  funds  contributed  by 
various  outside  institutions  and  individuals.  It  was  not 
until  1895  that  the  State  appropriated  $1,800  yearly  for 
studies  of  food  economy  and  the  bacteria  of  milk. 

The  studies  of  bacteria  in  relation  to  dairy  practice,  be- 
gan at  the  station  in  1888  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Conn  and  carried 
on  by  him  and  his  assistants  into  the  next  century,  and 
the  introduction  of  the  covered  milk  pail  have  been  of 
great  educational  value  to  the  dairymen  and  the  public  and 
have  laid  the  foundation  of  the  improvement  in  the  sani- 
tary quality  of  milk  produced  and  sold  in  this  State. 

The  nutrition  studies  of  the  station  were  discontinued 
with  the  removal  to  Storrs,  but  the  bacterial  studies  on 
dairy  products  were  continued. 

The  field  tests  of  fertilizers  in  all  parts  of  the  State,  be- 
gun in  1875  were  continued  until  into  the  next  century. 

Of  importance  was  also  an  extensive  study  of  the  com- 
position and  fertilizer  value  of  the  roots  and  stubble  of 
crops. 

The  work  in  poultry,  intensively  carried  on  soon  after 
1900,  has  determined  the  nature  and  cause  of  bacillary 
diarrhoea  in  poultry  and  shown  the  effective  means  for 
combating  it. 

The  use  of  pigmentation  and  other  criteria  for  select- 
ing laying  hens  has  resulted  in  extensive  rejection  of  un- 
profitable birds  and  consequent  reduction  of  the  cost  of 
egg  production. 

The  studies  of  the  factors  affecting  artificial  incuba- 
tion, of  the  egg  production  of  different  breeds,  and  of  the 
means  of  controlling  parasites  of  poultry,  have  all  con- 
tributed much  to  the  profit  of  poultry  raising. 

The  studies  of  infectious  abortion,  still  in  progress, 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  383 

have  already  thrown  much  light  on  this  obscure  and  very- 
destructive  disease. 

A  comparative  test  of  the  yield  of  the  chief  varieties 
of  corn  grown  in  the  State,  made  in  co-operation  with  the 
Connecticut  station,  and  continued  for  nine  years  has  in- 
dicated which  varieties  are  on  the  average  the  most  pro- 
ductive and  which  are  best  adapted  to  the  different  sec- 
tions of  the  State. 

This  statement  is  made  merely  to  give  an  impression 
but  no  complete  statement  of  the  range  of  the  station's 
work. 

Among  those  who  have  been  on  the  station  staff  and 
have  since  served  important  agricultural  interests  may  be 
mentioned,  W.  A.  Stocking,  Jr.,  now  professor  of  dairv 
bacteriology  in  Cornell  University;  Dr.  Charles  Thom,. 
for  years  assigned  to  the  station  as  mycologist  by  the 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  who  was  later  chief 
mycologist  of  that  Department;  Dr.  H.  W.  Conn,  bac- 
teriologist, a  professor  at  Wesleyan  University,  chief  of 
the  State  Board  of  Health  laboratory  and  a  leading  dairy 
bacteriologist;  C.  L.  Beach,  formerly  professor  of  dairy 
husbandry  at  the  station,  then  at  the  University  of  Ver- 
mont and  now  president  of  the  Connecticut  Agricultural 
College. 

The  Grange  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  is  an  agency 
which  has  helped  to  increase  agricultural  knowledge  in 
less  formal  ways  than  those  already  cited  as  well  as  to 
promote  social  intercourse  among  farmers. 

The  National  Grange  of  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry 
was  organized  Dec.  4,  1867.  The  founders  "looked  for 
advantages  to  come  to  the  farmers  through  social  and  in- 
tellectual intercourse,  not  through  political  action." 

The  first  local  grange  was  organized  in  Washington, 


384  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

D.  C,  its  members  being  largely  government  clerks  and 
employees.  It  was  a  weak  organization  until  1871  but  the 
panic  of  1873  which  fell  on  farmers  with  great  severity, 
greatly  increased  the  grange  activity  and  led  to  the  wild 
"granger"  legislation  at  the  west.  In  that  year  granges 
were  formed  in  all  but  four  states,  of  which  Connecticut 
was  one.  The  organization  was  at  its  maximum  in  1875 
when  the  membership  was  probably  over  one  million,  but 
interest  declined  till  in  1880  there  were  only  4,000  active. 

The  State  grange  in  Connecticut  was  organized,  April 
15,  1875  but  was  not  successful  till  about  1885  when  a 
new  State  grange  was  organized  at  South  Glastonbury. 
In  that  year  there  were  sixteen  granges  in  the  State.  But 
the  order  grew  rapidly.  In  1892  there  were  eight  Pomona 
granges,  146  subordinate  granges  with  10,000  members. 
From  about  that  time  the  numbers  decreased.  Of  155 
granges  organized  in  Connecticut  since  the  beginning 
twenty  per  cent  have  died. 

The  grange  in  Connecticut  has  never  been  very  suc- 
cessful as  a  co-operative  agency  in  marketing,  nor  has  it 
assumed  political  activity  as  a  distinct  party  element.  It 
has  been  of  very  considerable  value,  however,  in  the  way 
contemplated  by  the  founders  noted  above.  It  has  pro- 
moted social  intercourse,  mental  improvement  and  exer- 
cise in  public  speaking  and  writing. 

It  has  drawn  many  from  the  isolation  of  their  farms 
into  intercourse  with  a  wider  social  circle,  before  the  days 
of  improved  roads,  automobiles  and  by  them  the  possi- 
bility of  sharing  in  the  attractions  of  the  city,  lessened 
the  popularity  and  the  need  of  the  grange. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  385 

The  Development  of  Agricultural  Tools 

"The  nineteenth  century  witnessed  greater  improve- 
ments in  agricuhural  methods  and  machinery  than  any 
— if  not  all — the  centuries  that  had  gone  before."  At 
its  beginning  all  agricultural  tools  were  of  the  rudest 
kind,  designed  almost  wholly  for  hand  labor  and  either 
made  on  the  farm  with  the  aid  of  the  blacksmith  or  of 
some  local  carpenter.   No  two  were  exactly  alike. 

Thus  up  to  1790  wheat  was  sown  by  hand,  cut  with  a 
sickle,  thrashed  and  winnowed  by  hand  (66).  The  cradle 
scythe  was  in  common  use  before  the  beginning  of  the 
century  and  Brewer  states  that  between  the  time  of  the 
declaration  of  independence  and  the  introduction  of  the 
cast  iron  plow,  some  fifty  years  later,  the  most  important 
improvements  in  agricultural  machinery  were  the  Ameri- 
can cradle  and  the  fanning  mill  for  cleaning  grain  and 
other  seeds. 

The  plow  was  a  very  clumsy  affair,  with  a  mould  board 
hewn  from  wood,  protected  from  wear  by  old  scraps  of 
sheet  iron  or  tin  nailed  to  it. 

The  share  was  generally  of  iron  with  a  hardened  point. 
The  beam  was  a  straight  stick  with  upright  handles  cut 
from  branches  of  trees. 

A  powerful  man  was  needed  to  hold  it  and  twice  the 
draft  required  for  a  modern  plow.  Ex-president  Jefferson 
first  laid  down  the  mathematical  principles  by  which 
mould  boards  could  be  made  by  anyone  with  the  certainty 
of  all  being  effective  and  alike.  His  ideas  were  put  in 
practice  about  1793.  Charles  Newbold  of  New  Jersey 
made  the  first  cast-iron  plow  in  the  country,  all  cast  in 
one  piece,  which  was  patented  in  1 797. 

But  for  a  long  time  a  farm  tradition,  which  seems  to 


386  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

have  been  imported  from  England,  that  the  iron  plow 
"kills  the  life  of  the  land"  hindered  its  general  use.  Corn 
land  was  thought  to  be  specially  injured  by  it  and  wooden 
plows  were  used  by  some  farmers  for  plowing  corn  land, 
long  after  they  were  discarded  for  other  uses. 

"This  ol'  motor  plow,"  said  Kipling's  bailiff  not  long 
ago,  "may  be  all  right  in  Ameriky,  but  it  don't  turn  the 
earth  not  a  spit  deep  —  'taint  no  good  for  the  honor  of  the 
land."  These  traditions,  foolish  as  they  may  seem,  are 
yet  signs  of  that  care,  love  and  almost  reverence  for  the 
soil,  "The  honor  of  the  soil,"  which  was  ingrained  in  our 
English  forbears  and  happily  runs  in  some  measure  in 
the  blood  of  their  descendants  and  which  is  now  leading 
the  most  progressive  back  to  more  careful  study  of  the 
nature  of  the  soil  itself  and  the  methods  of  caring  for  it. 
For  soil  is  seen  to  be  not  the  dull,  dead  thing  so  many 
imagine  but  teeming  with  life.  It  largely  determines  the 
kind  of  crops  which  can  be  successfully  raised  in  any  re- 
gion. While  permanent  exhaustion  of  soil  is  rare,  an  un- 
derstanding of  its  nature,  of  the  life  within  it  and  the 
sanitation  of  this  life  are  necessary  if  agriculture  is  to 
meet  the  demands  now  made  upon  it. 

The  cast-iron  plow  was  rarely  used  before  1820.  The 
Hawkes  plow  made  in  Hartford,  became  popular  between 
1830  and  1833  and  at  that  time  "everybody  had  them." 
Fairbanks  of  St.  Johnsbury  also  made  iron  plows  in  1826 
and  their  use  spread  rapidly  down  the  Connecticut  valley. 

The  cast-iron  plow  was  much  improved  by  Joel  Nourse 
and  his  partners  in  Massachusetts  in  1836  and  was  in 
great  demand  in  the  twenty  years  following.  It  is  stated 
that  20,000  plows  were  sold  by  them  in  a  single  year.  The 
number  of  patents  on  plows,  prior  to  1830  was  124,  up  to 
1848  between  300  and  400. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  387 

Apparently  the  steel  and  wrought-iron  plow  was 
patented  in  1808,  a  side  hill  plow  in  1831,  the  coulter  at- 
tachment in  1834,  jointer  in  1884,  and  probably  the 
wheel,  gang  and  steam  plow  somewhat  earlier. 

The  sulky  plow  was  in  use  in  1844.  The  steam  tractor 
plow  was  invented  and  used  some  time  in  the  sixties. 
Threshing  machines  were  introduced  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

There  are  various  contestants  for  the  honor  of  invent- 
ing the  grain  reaper  but  the  record  of  the  McCormick 
reaper  will  sufficiently  indicate  the  time  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  labor-saving  machine  which  has  made  possible 
the  enormous  expansion  of  wheat  growing. 

The  invention  began  in  1809.  It  was  not  then  a  suc- 
cess though  it  had  the  main  features  vital  to  all  grain 
cutting  machines.  Between  1820  and  1830  the  machine 
was  made  serviceable  and  was  patented  in  1834.  A  num- 
ber were  made  prior  to  1844.  In  that  year  twenty-five 
were  built,  double  that  number  in  1845  and  the  next  year 
a  yet  larger  number.  From  1845  to  1860  the  model  re- 
mained unchanged  except  for  the  addition  of  seats  for 
the  raker  and  driver.  The  machine  cut  the  grain  and  left 
it  on  the  ground  in  loose  bundles.  The  self-binder  was 
added  in  1872  using  wire  binders.  In  1880  twine  was  sub- 
stituted. 

A  successful  mowing  machine  was  patented  in  1822  by 
Jeremiah  Bailey  of  Pennsylvania,  which  "cut  grass  in 
the  neatest  manner,  where  land  was  smooth,  with  a  swath 
about  five  feet  wide  and  lays  the  grass  in  regular  rows." 
But  the  foundation  of  the  present  mower  rests  on  the 
patent  of  Hussey  in  1833.  Subsequent  changes  have  been 
improvements  of  his  idea.  Mowers  were  not  in  general 
use  before  1850. 


388  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

The  period  of  the  invention  of  other  farming  tools  now 
in  use  in  greatly  improved  form  was  apparently  in  the 
three  decades  following  1830.  The  horse  cultivator  was 
devised  by  Jethro  Tull  of  England  early  in  the  eighteenth 
century  and  of  a  drill  seeder  in  1733. 

Jared  Eliot's  seeder  and  manure  distributor  has  al- 
ready been  noted,  (page  344).  The  first  patent  for  a  corn 
planter  was  granted  to  Eliakim  Spooner  of  Vermont,  in 
1799.   The  first  potato  digger  was  invented  about  1833. 

The  Connecticut  Courant,  July  31,  1821,  announces  "a 
machine  for  sowing  small  seeds  with  perfect  regularity 
and  in  any  desired  quantity  has  lately  been  invented."  But 
the  manufacture  of  grain  drills  began  about  1840. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  farm  wagons  were  al- 
most unknown,  two-wheeled  carts  being  more  convenient 
with  oxen.  Chaises  and  coaches  then  began  to  be  used  for 
travel.    Light,  one-horse  wagons  came  into  use  about  1830. 

Commercial  Fertilizers.  Until  the  middle  of  the 
century  the  fertilizers  used  in  the  State  other  than  farm 
manure  were  lime  in  various  forms,  land  plaster,  swamp 
muck  and  marine  mud  and  on  the  coast  farms,  fish,  fol- 
lowing the  Indian  practice.  But  soon  after  1840,  follow- 
ing the  appearance  of  von  Liebig's  work  on  Chemistry 
in  Its  Applications  to  Agriculture,  attention  began  to  be 
called  to  concentrated  or  commercial  fertilizers. 

Probably  Peruvian  guano  was  the  first  used.  Then  the 
business  of  fertilizer  manufacture  began  and  chemical 
manures  "as  good  as  Peruvian  guano"  were  put  on  the 
market.  In  1856  the  manufacture  of  dry  fish  manures  be- 
gan. The  opening  of  mines  of  phosphate  rock  in  South 
Carolina  and  later  in  Florida  and  development  of  the 
German  potash  industry  early  in  the  Sixties  furnished  the 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE         389 

material  for  an  extensive  use  of  soluble  phosphates  and 
potash  salts.  The  concentration  of  beef  slaughtering  for 
the  market  in  great  establishments  made  necessary  and 
profitable  the  reduction  of  offal  to  an  inoffensive  and 
transportable  form,  which  at  once  found  its  use  in  nitrog- 
enous manures.  Nitrate  of  soda  from  Chili  was  also  an 
important  addition  to  the  fertilizer  material  and  in  re- 
cent years  the  recovery  of  ammonia  from  the  coke  manu- 
facture and  the  fixation  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  have 
further  added  to  it. 

In  the  early  years  some  were  sceptical  or  denied  the 
value  of  commercial  fertilizers  and  others  had  often  too 
much  faith  in  them,  as  a  kind  of  patent  medicine,  to  cure 
all  defects  of  soil  or  tillage.  The  proper  regulation  of  the 
trade  and  the  protection  from  frauds,  as  is  noted  on  page 
378  became  very  necessary  and  was  a  chief  reason,  in  the 
minds  of  many  farmers,  for  the  establishment  of  an 
agricultural  station.  A  law  was  passed  in  1869  requiring 
the  labeling  of  commercial  fertilizers  with  a  statement  of 
composition.  But  with  time  the  manufacture  of  fertilizers 
has  become  as  reliable  as  any  other  kind  of  manufacture, 
the  goods  are  sold  largely  on  the  basis  of  their  content  of 
plant  food  and  farmers  have  come  to  a  better  understand- 
ing of  the  way  in  which  they  should  be  used.  At  the 
present  time  60,000  to  70,000  tons  yearly  are  used  in  the 
State,  for  which  farmers  pay  probably  not  less  than  five 
million  dollars;  by  the  census  of  1919  about  $4,900,000. 
Calculating  the  amounts  paid  on  the  value  of  the  dollar  in 
1913,  the  increase  in  the  amount  paid  yearly  for  fertilizers 
is  the  last  decade  has  been  about  $360,000. 

The  foregoing  shows  the  development  of  the  educa- 
tional and  material  aids  to  agriculture  which  were  forced 


390  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

by  the  increasing  demands  made  upon  it  by  the  growth  of 
population  and  the  increasing  diversity  of  employment. 

It  remains  to  notice  the  more  important  farming  in- 
terests which  have  from  time  to  time  flourished  in  the  last 
and  the  present  centuries. 

At  no  time  have  there  been  such  large  farms  as  in  many 
other  states. 

Never  has  Connecticut  been  a  one-crop  State,  In  each 
period  there  have  been  a  number  of  farming  interests 
which  were  moderately  profitable  and  at  the  same  time 
others  which  were  growing  or  decreasing  in  importance. 

Horses  and  Mules.  In  the  last  century  horses  had 
been  exported  from  Connecticut  to  the  West  Indies  and 
the  business  was  of  considerable  importance  after  the 
close  of  the  Revolution  and  into  the  early  years  of  the  new 
century.  The  following,  (43,  1855),  from  a  correspond- 
ent in  Coventry  illustrates  the  conditions : 

"From  the  settlement  to  the  close  of  the  revolution 
horses  were  of  medium  size,  mostly  pacers,  small  bones, 
large  muscles  and  great  endurance. 

"Farmers  in  Coventry  rode  to  Boston,  72  miles  in  one 
day  and  back  the  next.  There  was  quite  a  business  there, 
(Coventry)  in  raising  horses  for  the  West  Indies  trade. 
Every  farmer  of  means  kept  five  to  ten  horses,  small 
boned,  active,  good  under  the  saddle,  mostly  pacers  and 
amblers.  Then  the  raising  of  horses  declined  and  mules 
were  raised  instead.  Then  the  western  states  supplied 
the  mule  market  at  lower  prices  and  that  business  ceased. 
About  that  time  the  merino  sheep  business  came  in." 

Beef  and  Pork.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century  Gov. 
Trumbull  refers  to  the  raising  of  beef  and  pork  as  a  lead- 
ing industry  in  the  State. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  391 

Much  was  packed  for  sale  in  foreign  parts  and  for 
years  there  was  a  good  domestic  demand  for  beef.  In 
Litchfield  County  droves  of  two-year-olds  were  brought 
from  Vermont  and  New  York,  fed  during  the  winter  on 
^rain  and  roughage,  finished  off  on  pasture  during  the 
summer  and  sold  in  the  fall.  The  same  thing  was  done  in 
other  parts  of  the  State.  Devons,  Short  Horns  and  Here- 
fords  were  common,  but  since  1840  to  1850  the  number 
hoth  of  oxen  and  swine  reported  in  the  Census  has  shrunk 
though  swine  have  increased  in  the  last  twenty  years,  but 
to  only  about  half  the  number  reported  in  1840. 

The  introduction  of  dressed  beef  and  pork  by  rail  from 
the  west  has  put  an  end  to  any  very  considerable  beef  pro- 
duction in  this  State. 

Dairying  and  Dairy  Stock.  The  original  or  so- 
called  "native"  stock  of  Connecticut  undoubtedly  came 
from  Devonshire  and  the  adjoining  Counties  of  Somer- 
setshire and  Gloucestershire  where  the  Devon  breed  pre- 
vailed and  where  had  been  the  home  of  many  of  the  New 
England  settlers.  This  stock  has  been  called  mongrel  or 
inferior  by  some  writers.  But  any  inferiority  was  prob- 
ably due  rather  to  the  inferior  shelter,  pasture  and  feed, 
and  lack  of  the  chance  to  improve  by  breeding  in  the  new 
country  than  to  anything  inherent  in  the  animals  them- 
selves. "The  Commons,  the  Greens,  the  Parks,  so  fre- 
quently found  in  our  towns  and  cities,  are  landmarks  of 
those  early  times  when  each  man's  cows  were  gathered 
into  a  common  herd  for  better  care  and  protection." 
(Holt). 

The  "Town"  bull,  "Town"  herdsman  and  a  "Town" 
brand  also  testifv  to  the  care  of  the  communitv  for  the 


392  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

individual  owner  of  cows,  as  well  as  the  constant  mixture 
of  good  and  poor  strains. 

Meadows  and  pastures  first  had  some  intelligent  care 
with  the  opening  of  the  new  century.  A  writer  in  1813 
says:  "The  introduction  of  clover  .  .  .  has  within  the 
last  ten  years  made  a  very  sensible  improvement  in  the 
agriculture  of  this  country.  Indeed  it  is  only  within  the 
last  twenty  years  that  any  grass  seed  has  been  sown,  and 
it  will  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  more  clover  seed  has 
been  put  in  within  the  last  eight  years  than  has  ever  been 
since  the  country  was  inhabited," 

It  is  true  that  there  was  little,  if  any  thoroughbred 
stock  in  Connecticut  until  near  the  middle  of  the  century, 
but  on  the  other  hand  the  stock  brought  over  by  immi- 
grants would  naturally  have  been  as  carefully  selected  as 
was  possible  and  the  records  of  butter  and  cheese  made 
and  sold  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  indicate  that 
there  were  many  "good  milkers"  —  as  is  always  the  case 
—  among  these  "native"  cattle. 

In  1819  the  first  full-blood  Devon  bull  was  imported 
and  in  1820  two  full-blood  heifers  by  S.  and  L.  Hurlburt 
of  Winchester  Center,  (who  were  the  originators.  I  be- 
lieve, of  the  Hurlburt  apple).  From  this  stock  the  first 
working  cattle  came  which  commanded  high  prices. 

The  Hurlburt's  raised  and  sold  1,500  of  them.  At  the 
Hartford  fair  in  1825  the  Hurlburts  showed  some  fine 
Devonshire  bulls  and  Ayrshire  and  Holderness  steers  and 
heifers.  In  a  report  of  the  Hartford  fair  it  is  said  that 
"probably  no  section  of  our  country  can  produce  a  finer 
race  of  native  cattle  than  this  County.  Most  of  the  for- 
eign breeds  of  known  and  established  excellence  are  now 
propagated  within  the  limits  of  this  Society,  half  blooded 
Holderness,  Ayrshire  and  Devonshire  cows  took  prem- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  393 

iums."  The  first  pure  herd  book,  of  which  I  find  notice, 
is  of  short  horn  cattle,  begun  in  1835  at  East  Windsor. 
The  early  importations  of  Jersey  cattle  are  most  difficult 
to  trace.  The  animals  were  called  indifferently  Jerseys, 
Guernseys  or  Alderneys  and  they  were  interbred  indis- 
criminately. The  marked  differences  between  Guernsey 
and  Jersey  today  are  largely  changes  which  have  developed 
by  careful  selection  and  breeding  since  1870. 

It  is  stated,  (41,  Vol.  IV),  that  "nearly,  if  not  quite  the 
earliest  importation  of  Jersey  cows  into  Connecticut  was 
in  1846  when  J.  A.  Taintor  brought  into  Hartford  County 
twelve  of  the  best  cows  that  he  could  find  on  the  Island  of 
Jersey."  The  earliest  imported  Jerseys  to  become  regis- 
tered later  were  brought  over  in  1850  by  Messrs.  Buell 
and  Norton  to  Connecticut.  Somewhat  later  C.  R.  Alsop 
imported  two  Jerseys  which  he  sold  to  Lyman  A.  Mills  of 
Middlefield  in  1869  and  which  appear  in  Vol.  I  of  the 
Jersey  Register.  He  continued  as  a  breeder  of  Jerseys 
until  1896  when  he  sold  his  herd  of  32  head  to  C.  I.  Hood 
of  the  Hood  farm. 

Says  a  recent  writer:  "When  the  "Great  West"  first 
began  to  make  itself  vocal  in  Jersey  Club  affairs,  there 
were  more  Jerseys  in  Connecticut  than  in  all  the  great 
west." 

The  first  Guernseys,  the  records  of  which  were  kept 
so  that  they  could  be  recorded  in  the  registry,  were  im- 
ported in  1830  or  1831  by  Mr.  Prince  of  Boston.  About 
1874  a  number  of  importations  of  Guernseys  into  Con- 
necticut were  made  by  C.  M.  Beach  of  West  Hartford, 
which  were  the  foundation  of  the  herd  of  E.  Norton  of 
Farmington,  who  was  the  secretary  of  the  Guernsey 
registry.  The  Guernsey  herd  book  was  established  in 
Farminsfton. 


394  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

The  first  thoroughbred  herd  of  Holstein-Friesian  stock 
was  imported  into  this  country  about  1860  when  W.  W. 
Chenery  of  Behnont,  Mass.,  imported  a  bull  and  four 
cows  which  founded  the  breed  in  this  country.  One  of 
;he  earliest  importers  into  this  State  was  M.  L.  Stoddard 
of  Newington.  From  him  A.  B.  Pierpont  of  Waterbury 
bought  a  bull  which,  with  other  pure  bloods,  founded  a 
fine  thoroughbred  herd.  As  this  breed  is  distinctly  high 
milk-producing  it  has  become  very  popular  since  fresh 
milk  rather  than  butter  has  become  the  chief  product  of 
dairy  farms.  A  total  of  7,757  Holsteins  have  been  im- 
ported, most  of  them  between  1879  and  1890  and  from 
them  our  present  thoroughbred  stock  has  descended.  The 
number  of  registered  Holsteins  in  the  country  in  1915 
was  92,048. 

The  first  blooded  Ayrshires  brought  to  the  United 
States,  came  to  Connecticut  in  1822.  In  1837  the  Massa- 
chusetts Society  for  promoting  Agriculture  established 
its  first  herd  of  Ayrshires. 

Flint  states  (27),  that  "in  the  opinion  of  many  good 
judges  the  dairy  stock  of  New  England  has  not  been  im- 
proved in  its  intrinsic  good  qualities  during  the  last  thirty 
or  forty  years.  Cows  of  the  very  highest  order  as  milkers 
were  as  frequently  met  with,  they  say,  in  1825  as  at  the 
present,  1858." 

The  general  conditions  seem  to  have  been  these.  Early 
in  the  century  English  cattle  were  imported,  Durhams, 
Devons,  Aberdeens,  Herefords  and  Shorthorns  and  later, 
when  dairy  products,  rather  than  beef  and  draft  cattle 
became  necessary,  came  Ayrshires,  Jerseys,  Guernseys 
and  later  Holsteins.  But  these  were  used  at  first  chiefly 
for  "breeding  up"  the  dairy  stock  with  little  attention  to 
establishing    thoroughbred    herds.     Phelps    says    (53), 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  395 

Shorthorns  and  Devonshires,  prior  to  1870  were  leading 
breeds  (in  Litchfield  County)  "but  when  dairying  as  a 
business  came  in,  Connecticut  became  the  home  of  some 
of  the  best  old  world  breeds. 

In  fact  there  was  no  science  of  breeding  until  Darwin 
laid  the  foundations  in  his  series  of  books  on  biology,  be- 
ginning in  1859. 

Cheese  Manufacture.  In  1792  Alexander  Norton  of 
Goshen,  being  sent  to  the  South  for  his  health,  bought 
cheese  to  sell  again  at  the  South.  The  venture  was  so  suc- 
cessful that  he  continued  the  business,  packing  it  first  in 
hogsheads,  but  later  in  round  boxes  which  he  devised, 
each  carrying  two  cheeses.  This  was  the  beginning  of  an 
important  cheese  making  industry  in  this  section.  In  1845 
Litchfield  County  made  more  than  2^  million  pounds  of 
cheese  annually,  and  Windham  County  850,000  pounds. 
Dwight  says,  (24,  Vol.  II),  "The  inhabitants  of  Goshen 
are  probably  more  wealthy  than  any  other  collection  of 
farmers  in  New  England  equally  numerous.  The  quantity 
of  cheese  made  by  them  is  estimated  at  400,000  pounds. 
This  place  seems  to  have  been  a  pioneer  in  the  cheese  man- 
ufacture on  a  large  scale  and  no  other  place  in  the  State 
did  more  than  a  very  limited  business  in  cheese  making." 

The  first  pineapple  cheese  was  made  by  Lewis  M.  Nor- 
ton of  Goshen  in  1808  and  in  1810  a  patent  was  obtained 
for  the  form.  He  continued  till  1844  making  cheese  from 
his  own  herd  of  fifty  cows.  He  then  began  buying  curd 
from  other  dairies  and  built  what  is  believed  to  be  the  first 
cheese  factory  in  the  country.  Other  factories  soon 
started.  Norton's  son  established  one  in  New  York  State. 
The  two  made  65,000  to  70,000  pounds  as  late  as  1889. 


396  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Large  herds  of  Durhams  and  Ayrshires  developed  in  con- 
nection with  the  cheese  industry. 

Up  to  1780  making  butter  and  cheese  at  home  were  the 
chief  branches  of  dairy  industry  and  cheese  formed  a 
considerable  part  of  dairy  production  till  near  the  close 
of  the  century,  in  places  remote  from  railroad  transporta- 
tion. 

From  Connecticut  the  cheese  industry  and  dairy  farm- 
ing in  general  was  carried  to  the  West.  "The  Connecticut 
Yankee  brought  a  cheese  hoop  with  him  and  wherever  he 
went  made  cheese.  Western  Reserve  has  continued  to  be 
the  dairy  section  of  the  State.  There  the  old  home  made 
cheese  trade  developed,  there  the  cheese  factory  had  its 
beginnings,  there  the  creamery  had  its  development,  and 
there  is  now  the  market  milk  center  of  the  State." 

Butter  Making,  Co-operative  Creameries.  Butter 
was  made  in  families  from  the  beginning  and  home-made 
butter  became  an  article  of  trade  as  soon  as  the  market 
permitted.  Thus  in  1845  Litchfield  County  made  1,290,000 
pounds,  Hartford  and  Fairfield  Counties  almost  as  much. 
As  the  trade  increased  and  uniformity  and  excellence  of 
quality  became  more  necessary,  there  developed  the 
creamery  system  and  especially  the  co-operative  creamery. 

The  Farmington  Creamery,  if  not  the  very  first,  es- 
tablished, was  certainly  the  one  which  incited  the  general 
movement.  This  was  organized  as  a  joint  stock  company 
in  1869-1870  with  a  capital  of  $4,000,  afterwards  in- 
creased to  $4,500.  In  1871  it  received  milk  from  200 
cows  and  in  1881  from  750.  In  1889  there  were  five  joint 
stock  companies  and  two  private  creameries  within  a  few 
miles  of  Farmington  and  sixty-three  in  the  State.  Wapp- 
ing  Creamery  was  organized  in  1883,  Windsor  in  1885. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  397 

In  1889  Lebanon  Creamery  "sent  tons  of  home-made  but- 
ter to  Providence,"  but  this  became  unprofitable  and  a 
co-operative  creamery  was  estabhshed  to  make  cheese. 
But  all  the  other  creameries,  it  is  believed,  were  engaged 
solely  in  making  and  marketing  butter,  the  skim-milk  be- 
ing either  returned  to  the  farms  or  in  many  cases  poured 
into  the  river. 

The  advent  of  the  cream  gathering  system  with  deep 
setting  left  the  skimmed  milk  on  the  farm,  paying  by  the 
"space"  of  cream  was  supplanted  by  testing  each  patron's 
cream  and  basing  payment  on  pounds  of  butter  fat  de- 
livered. The  use  of  the  separator  on  the  farm  added  to 
the  economy  of  butter  production.  But  the  business  of 
these  creameries  became  unprofitable  and  they  disap- 
peared as  rapidly  as  they  had  grown  in  numbers  and  im- 
portance. The  reason  is  obvious.  Prior  to  about  1878  the 
consumption  of  fresh  milk  in  cities  and  towns  was  light 
and  was  supplied  within  a  short  radius  of  farms.  At  least 
the  demand  for  fresh  milk  did  not  anywhere  meet  the  sup- 
ply. The  surplus  was  used  for  butter  making  in  the 
family,  and  sold  to  individuals  or  to  the  village  store. 

Then  came  the  co-operative  creamery  as  has  been  noted 
and  an  increasing  demand  for  high-grade  butter.  But 
soon  came  the  ruinous  western  competition  in  butter  and 
the  introduction  of  butter  substitutes,  which  closed  the 
butter  factories  of  Connecticut.  (In  1889  there  were  63 
of  them,  now  only  very  few  remain. ) 

The  industry  in  condensed  milk  in  this  country  began 
in  Litchfield  County.  A  Mr.  Gale  of  Burrville  put  up 
milk  under  the  first  patent  for  condensing  milk  and  em- 
ploying sugar  in  the  process.  The  Borden  Condensed 
Milk  Company,  organized  in  1863,  did  business  in  Win- 
sted  until  1866. 


398  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

But  with  the  concentration  of  population  in  cities  and 
with  increased  attention  to  sanitation  and  the  importance 
of  rational  nutrition  there  has  come  a  greatly  increased 
demand  for  clean  fresh  milk  made  under  sanitary  condi- 
tions, and  since  1900  about  three-fourths  of  the  milk  pro- 
duced has  been  sold  fresh.  The  production  and  proper 
marketing  of  such  milk  is  now  the  only  profitable  branch 
of  dairy  industry.  Shipping  stations  for  fresh  milk  have 
taken  the  place  of  creameries,  and  while  very  little  fresh 
milk  is  brought  into  Connecticut  approximately  twenty- 
five  million  quarts  are  yearly  shipped  from  Connecticut 
to  neighboring  states. 

Milk  has  also  been  made  a  safer  food  by  pasteurization, 
seventy  per  cent  of  the  fluid  milk  consumed  in  the  State 
being  treated  in  this  way. 

Better  still  is  the  production  of  certified  milk  from 
tested  cows,  with  all  sanitary  precautions  in  the  handling 
of  the  milk  under  rigid  inspection  by  state  officials. 

The  manufacture  of  ice  cream,  a  recent  but  rapidly 
growing  business  (there  are  at  least  twenty  factories  of 
good  repute  in  the  State),  is  of  great  advantage  to  the 
dairy  business  by  taking  up  its  surplus  milk  in  periods  of 
over-production. 

The  number  of  milk  cows  in  the  State,  over  85,000  in 
1850,  was  nearly  128,000  in  1890  to  1900,  but  in  1920 
sharply  declined  to  112,600,  due  to  reduction  of  stock 
during  the  war,  but  rose  in  1923  to  141,000. 

Four  inventions  have  made  the  present  development  of 
the  milk  business  possible.  The  silo  is  the  first,  which 
gives  a  supply  of  green,  succulent  feed  through  the  entire 
year  and  greatly  reduces  the  need  of  pasture  land.  The 
practice  of  ensilaging  green  fodder  is  very  ancient,  but 
its  general  introduction  into  dairy  practice  is  very  modern. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  399 

In  1870  Goffert  published  in  France  a  Manual  of  the  Cul- 
ture and  Siloing  of  Maize  and  other  green  crops,  which 
brought  it  to  general  attention  and  he  may  be  called  the 
Father  of  Modern  Silage.  The  earhest  silos  in  the  United 
States  were  built  by  Miles  in  Michigan  in  1875  and  by 
F.  Morris  in  Maryland  in  1876.  Their  use  in  this  State 
immediately  followed.  The  round  silo  resulted  from  the 
work  of  King  in  Wisconsin,  1892-1895.  In  1882  there 
were  less  than  100  silos  in  the  United  States.  It  is  esti- 
mated that  now  there  are  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  use. 

The  second,  and  later  invention  is  the  milking  machine 
which  has  greatly  reduced  the  labor  requirement. 

The  third  is  the  corn  harvester  which  harvests  and 
binds  the  crop,  ready  to  be  cut  and  put  into  the  silo  by 
machinery  with  a  further  reduction  of  labor. 

The  fourth  invention  is  the  Babcock  test  to  determine 
the  amount  of  butter  fat  in  milk  as  a  basis  of  payment,  or 
as  a  check  on  adulteration. 

In  1891  this  was  first  used  in  the  State  to  fix  the  pay- 
ment for  mJlk  by  its  content  of  butter  fat.  Soon  after, 
it  was  adopted  by  the  creameries  as  a  basis  of  payment, 
replacing  other  systems  which  gave  a  chance  for  dis- 
honesty and  discouraged  the  producers  of  high  quality 
cream.  At  present  it  is  useful  as  a  test  of  the  quality  of 
market  milk  in  the  State  and  as  a  help  to  breeders  in  judg- 
ing of  the  performance  of  individual  cows. 

The  two  most  insidious  and  dangerous  diseases  of  dairy 
stock  are  tuberculosis  and  infectious  abortion.  The 
danger  to  the  public  and  loss  to  the  farmer  caused  by 
tuberculosis  is  well  understood,  but  infectious  abortion 
causes  more  loss  to  the  dairyman  than  is  generally  known. 

The  means  of  preventing  it  are  now  being  studied  at 
the  Storrs  Agricultural  Station  with  encouraging  results. 


400  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Good  progress  is  now  made  in  ridding  the  State  of  tu- 
berculous cattle  and  of  stopping  their  entry  into  it. 

As  a  result  of  the  work  of  the  commissioner  of  do- 
mestic animals,  the  dairy  commissioner  and  federal  offi- 
cials there  are  now  1,405  herds,  containing  31,764  dairy 
cattle  in  the  State  proved  to  be  free  from  tuberculosis. 
Of  these  410  herds,  numbering  8,797  head  have  been 
found  free  for  two  years  or  more.  This  of  course,  is  only 
a  small  fraction  of  the  total  number  of  cows  in  the  State, 
but  it  marks  the  early  stages  of  a  movement  to  entirely 
wipe  out  bovine  tuberculosis  and  by  so  doing  to  lessen 
the  disease  in  the  human  race. 

The  Sheep  Industry.  In  the  nineteenth  century 
Connecticut  developed  an  extensive  sheep  industry, 
brought  into  the  State  and  country  the  merino  sheep  which 
were  the  foundation  of  the  best  flocks  everywhere,  and 
finally  has  seen  the  steady  decline  of  sheep  raising  almost 
to  the  vanishing  point. 

The  introduction  of  Spanish  merino  sheep  is  of  special 
interest  because  it  was  the  work  of  a  Connecticut  citizen 
and  Connecticut  was  the  center  from  which  this  breed 
was  distributed,  being  the  foundation  of  the  improved 
Vermont  merinos  and  the  American  merinos  which  have 
been  of  inestimable  value  to  the  country. 

It  is  said  that  two  merino  ewes  and  a  ram  were  sent  to 
a  gentleman  in  Cambridge  in  1798,  which  were  butchered 
and  eaten.  In  1801  a  merino  ram,  Dom  Pedro,  reached 
this  country  and  was  used  as  a  sire  in  New  York  and 
Delaware.  In  1801  Seth  Adams  imported  a  merino  ram 
and  ewe  and  received  a  prize  from  the  Massachusetts 
Agricultural  Society  for  the  importation  of  a  pair  of 
superior  breed,    But  for  the  establishment  of  the  breed 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  401 

on  American  farms  the  country  is  indebted  to  Gen.  David 
Humphreys,  diplomatist,  poet  and  farmer.  In  a  discourse 
delivered  in  1816,  he  indulges  the  hope  that  ''this  acquisi- 
tion of  the  golden  fleece  is  an  event  of  some  importance" 
and  that  "it  will  possibly  be  remembered  when  I  shall  be 
no  more."  He  was  awarded  a  gold  medal  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts Society  for  Promoting  Agriculture  and  later 
Connecticut  gave  him  a  testimonial  in  recognition  of  his 
services. 

In  1802,  (54),  Gen.  David  Humphrey,  U.  S.  Minister 
at  Madrid,  retired  from  office  with  the  close  of  the  Adams 
administration.  He  had  become  a  special  favorite  among 
the  grandees  from  some  of  whom  he  had  acquired  a  deep 
interest  in  the  Spanish  sheep.  Being  contrary  to  Ameri- 
can custom  he  could  not  accept  the  present  usually  be- 
stowed on  a  departing  minister  but  at  his  suggestion  he 
was  tacitly  permitted  to  send  a  flock  of  pure  blooded 
merinos  to  his  farm  at  Derby,  Conn.  This  consisted  of 
75  ewes  and  25  rams,  nine  animals  having  died  on  the 
voyage. 

His  farm  at  once  became  the  center  of  the  wool  grow- 
ing interest. 

At  first  farmers  were  not  greatly  interested,  but  when 
America  was  shut  off  from  foreign  wool  the  interest  in 
wool  increased.  In  1806  Humphrey  was  glad  to  get  $300 
for  a  ram  and  two  ewes.  In  1808  he  sold  a  ram  for 
$1,000.  Crossing  merinos  with  common  sheep  was  found 
to  double  the  shearing  of  wool.  Connecticut  became  the 
center  of  a  sheep  mania  and  in  1813  there  were  estimated 
to  be  400,000  sheep  within  the  State.  From  there  the 
merino  stock  was  distributed  through  the  sheep  raising 
sections  of  the  country. 

In  1810  merino  wool  sold  in  Hartford  at  the  following 


402  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

prices:    Full-bred,  $2.75  per  pound.    Half-bred,  $1.00. 
Quarter-bred,  62  cents. 

Regarding  the  yield  per  head  little  data  appears.  The 
fleece  of  a  pure  merino  lamb  in  New  Milford,  (1810)  was 
said  to  weight  nine  pounds,  the  carcass,  sixty- three 
pounds. 

In  1824  the  Saxon  merinos  were  brought  in  and  largely 
raised. 

About  1815  the  tariff  on  wool  was  removed  and  a  de- 
cline in  the  sheep  industry  followed,  lasting  till  1825. 
Then  for  twenty  years  the  production  of  fine  wool  greatly 
increased. 

In  1840  there  were  over  400,000  sheep  in  Connecticut 
(U.  S.  Census)  and  a  production  of  nearly  900,000 
pounds  of  wool.  The  production  steadily  decreased  from 
that  date  until,  in  1920  there  were  less  than  12,000  sheep 
in  the  State  with  a  wool  production  of  about  42,000 
pounds. 

In  1810  and  1811,  while  Spain  was  at  war  with 
Napoleon,  her  flocks  were  broken  up,  eaten  by  ravaging 
armies,  stolen  by  the  French  and  thousands  were  smug- 
gled through  Portugal  to  England.  The  Junta,  in  order 
to  get  fimds,  sold  the  choicest  stock  and  it  is  estimated 
that  20,000  full  blooded  sheep  came  to  America.  Most 
of  them  probably  were  used  for  grading  up  native  stock 
rather  than  for  building  pure  blooded  flocks.  The  prices 
here  fell  to  one-tenth  of  the  prices  charged  at  the  height 
of  the  excitement  following  their  introduction. 

Carding  machines  for  this  fine  wool  were  soon  found 
in  every  hamlet  and  Congress  increased  the  ad  valorem 
duty  on  wool  from  five  to  thirty-five  per  cent. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE         403 


Fruit  Growing.  While  the  fruit  crop  was  consider- 
able at  the  close  of  the  preceding  century,  choice  varieties 
were  few.  Most  fruit  trees  had  been  raised  from  seed. 
The  apples  were  of  all  colors  and  flavors,  but  of  these 
"native"  kinds  some  were  choice  and  have  held  their  place. 
Thus  the  Hurlburt,  as  already  noticed,  was  a  Connecticut 
seedling.  It  is  said  that  the  original  Northern  Spy  in  New 
York  came  from  seed  from  Salisbury,  Conn.  Hadwin 
states  that  the  first  variety  of  apple  developed  in  New 
England  was  the  Rhode  Island  Greening  in  Portsmouth, 
R.  I.  The  original  tree  stood  near  an  ancient  tavern 
known,  in  1765,  as  Green's  Inn,  and  for  years  its  fruit 
was  called  "Green's  Inn  apple." 

The  Roxbury  Russet  probably  originated  in  Roxbury, 
Mass.,  soon  after  the  settlement  of  the  country.  The  first 
settlers  at  Stonington  came  from  Roxbury  in  1649  and 
it  is  said  brought  this  variety  with  them.  It  is  undoubt- 
edly the  oldest  of  native  sorts.  The  original  Baldwin 
stood  in  Wilmington,  Mass.,  and  was  first  recognized 
as  a  favorite  fruit  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century,  James  Hillhouse  of 
New  Haven,  (44,  Vol.  I),  received  scions  from  the 
King's  gardener  in  France  and  grafted  150  varieties  of 
apples  and  40  of  pears.  President  Dwight  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, early  in  the  century,  (24)  gives  a  list  of  twenty  lead- 
ing varieties  of  apples  grown  in  New  England,  from  which 
fruit  may  be  had  in  every  month  of  the  year  except  July. 
Gold  states  that  in  the  early  part  of  the  century  Pearmain 
and  Seeknofurther  were  common  and  that  the  Baldwin 
came  into  general  use  later. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  the  apple  product  was 
mainly  consumed  as  cider.    Soon  after,  and  perhaps  in 


404  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

consequence  of  the  closing  of  trade  with  the  West  Indies 
which  stopped  the  importation  of  rum,  the  manufacture 
of  cider  brandy  developed  rapidly.  Many  farmers  in 
Hartford  County  made  300  to  600  barrels  of  cider  and 
some  few  1 ,000  barrels  yearly,  eight  to  ten  barrels  making 
one  of  brandy. 

There  followed  a  temperance  revival  which  in  a  few 
years  arrested  this  manufacture.  Many  cut  down  their 
orchards  and  all  neglected  them. 

The  more  careful  selection  and  improvement  of  varie- 
ties of  apples  probably  began  about  1835  to  1840.  In 
1842  Titus  Gaylord  of  Cheshire  had  an  orchard  of  250 
trees  of  "engrafted"  winter  apples.  Since  that  time  the 
planting  of  orchards  of  carefully  selected  kinds  of  apples 
has  developed  into  a  special  agricultural  industry.  The 
crop  seems  to  have  reached  a  maximum  in  1900  with  a 
production  of  3,708,900  bushels  which  fell  according  to 
the  Census  of  1920  to  1,395,100  bushels.  The  quality  of 
the  fruit  and  the  careful  grading  of  it  were  never  so  good 
as  today. 

The  pests  which  attack  orchards  are  many.  The  two 
which  have  proved  most  injurious  are  the  coddling  moth 
and  the  San  Jose  scale.  The  former  is  everywhere  present 
and  persistent  and  must  be  controlled  every  year  by  spray- 
ing. The  San  Jose  scale,  brought  into  the  state  on  nursery 
stock  was  first  found  by  the  botanist  of  the  Agricultural 
Station  in  1885. 

It  spread  rapidly  and  by  1901  was  found  in  seventy- 
eight  places  in  the  State.  Many  orchards  were  ruined, 
many  others  seriously  damaged  and  the  whole  industry 
threatened  with  ruin.  It  was  finally  controlled  by  a  rigid 
inspection  of  nursery  stock  and  by  the  use  of  sprays.  Para- 
sites also  developed  which  destroyed  a  great  deal  of  the 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  405 

scale  on  neglected  wild  growth.  By  1914  the  pest  was  no 
longer  prevalent  but  lately  there  has  been  a  fresh  de- 
velopment of  it. 

Excellent  seedling  peaches  were  grown  in  the  State  be- 
fore 1800  and  long  afterwards.  Piatt,  (18),  says  that 
about  1840  peaches  were  as  common  about  our  farms  as 
apples,  and  seedling  trees  90  or  100  years  old  were  re- 
ported. Later  it  was  believed  that  the  day  of  peaches  was 
past  for  trees  lived  hardly  long  enough  to  give  a  single 
crop. 

In  the  Seventies  peach  growing  was  at  its  lowest  ebb ; 
yet  between  1845  and  1875  there  were  at  least  thirty  or- 
chards in  the  State,  one  in  Southington  of  twenty  acres. 
In  1893  Piatt  estimated  that  there  were  about  160,000 
peach  trees  in  the  State,  about  half  of  them  set  within  the 
last  three  years. 

Peach  "yellows,"  known  as  early  as  1815,  (23,  1845),. 
became  very  destructive  and  in  1842,  is  said  to  threaten 
the  destruction  of  all  peaches.  Complaint  is  also  made  of 
the  "curl."  Rareripes,  Admirables,  Royal  Kensington  and 
Noblesse  are  mentioned  as  popular  varieties  and  probably 
by  that  time  the  peach  was  somewhat  generally  grown. 

In  1875  J.  H.  Hale  of  Glastonbury  planted  the  first 
commercial  peach  orchard  and  introduced  and  greatly 
fostered  this  branch  of  farming  in  the  State. 

In  1878  P.  M.  Augur  of  Middlefield  planted  a  second 
orchard  of  1,500  trees,  but  because  of  frost  injury  the 
first  considerable  crop  of  peaches  was  not  gathered  until 
1887,  and  from  then  on  the  business  rapidly  increased. 

The  industry  has  had  very  serious  setbacks,  due  to  in- 
sect and  fungus  invasions  and  the  vagaries  of  our  winter 
climate,  but  partly  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Connecticut 
peach  is  at  its  best  when  those  from  other  orchards 


406  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

further  south  are  out  of  market,  the  business  is  fairly 
successful.  The  peak  production  was  in  1914-1915,  prob- 
ably 500,000  baskets.  Hale  states  that  in  1901  there  were 
less  than  100,000  peach  trees  in  Connecticut  while  ten 
years  later  there  were  three  million. 

This,  however,  must  have  been  a  peach  stampede,  like 
the  '49  rush  for  gold  in  California,  which  quickly  sub- 
sided, leaving  dead  and  neglected  orchards. 

The  perishable  small  fruits  have  been  grown  since  the 
early  days  of  the  Colony  but  only  became  of  commercial 
importance  late  in  the  century  when  quick  transportation 
and  the  demands  of  nearby  cities  made  any  considerable 
production  profitable. 

Since  the  passage  of  the  Volstead  Act,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  it,  the  growing  of  grapes  in  this  vState  has  in- 
creased enormously  though  there  are  no  statistics  to  show 
this  expansion. 

The  Seed-Growing  Business.  While  before  the  Rev- 
olution some  garden  seeds  were  imported  from  London 
by  dealers  and  ship  owners,  yet  most  families  saved  seed 
of  their  own  raising  for  their  use.  The  oldest  seed  firms 
were  established  in  Philadelphia,  the  first  being  David 
Landreth,  established  in  1784. 

The  Shaker  colony  in  Enfield  probably  started  late  in 
the  eighteenth  century. 

The  Shakers  prepared  for  market  medicinal  herbs  and 
garden  seeds  and  their  gardens  are  said  to  have  been  very 
profitable,  because  their  products  were  everywhere  sought, 
being  esteemed  better  than  any  other. 

They  frequently  had  large  orders  from  Europe  for 
medicinal  herbs. 

In  two  sections  where  vegetables  were  grown  to  some 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  407 

extent  for  market  the  possibility  of  commercial  seed 
growing  was  recognized.  One  of  these  sections  was 
Wethersfield.  As  has  been  noted,  Wethersfield  had  long 
been  a  center  for  onion  growing  and  vegetable  gardening. 
Gradually  it  became  a  center  for  seed  production  rather 
than  truck  farming. 

The  seed  business  has  continued  there  strong  up  to  the 
present,  in  spite  of  the  great  changes  in  commercial  and 
local  conditions. 

The  first  general  seed  business  in  Wethersfield  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been  started  about  1820  by  James  L.  Bel- 
den.  It  proved  to  be  profitable  and  in  1838  was  sold  to 
Franklin  G.  Comstock  and  his  son  William  G.  Comstock. 

Later  W.  G.  Comstock  with  Henry  Ferre  founded 
Comstock,  Ferre  &  Company,  incorporated  in  1853.  For 
86  years  the  business  has  been  carried  on  under  the  Com- 
stock name  and  for  at  least  104  years  there  has  been  the 
same  established  business  on  their  property.  Other  firms 
were  later  established  all  of  which  had  a  country-wide 
reputation.  Thomas  Griswold  &  Company,  established  in 
1845;  Johnson,  Robbins  &  Company,  in  1855;  William 
Meggat,  in  1866;  and  Hart,  Welles  &  Company,  in  1894, 
which  was  succeeded  in  1916  by  the  Charles  C.  Hart  Seed 
Company. 

William  B.  Comstock,  a  strong,  aggressive  man,  built 
up  a  fine  seed  trade  in  the  South,  having  for  a  time  a 
branch  store  in  New  Orleans  and  he  pushed  out  on  the 
frontier  in  the  days  when  St.  Louis,  Chicago  and  Minne- 
apolis were  the  extreme  "West,"  almost  in  advance  of 
railroads.  He  seems  to  have  started  the  commission  box 
business.  He  devised  seed  bags,  with  printed  cultural 
directions  and  wax  seals,  the  different  colors  of  which 
represented  the  year  of  packing,  so  that  the  seeds  longest 


408  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

viable,  cucumbers,  beets,  etc.,  could  be  carried  for  five 
years  and  others  for  shorter  periods,  depending  on  the 
duration  of  their  vitality.  Comstock  laid  out  the  first 
route  of  his  seed  wagons,  up  the  Connecticut  valley  to 
Springfield,  Vermont  and  later  they  covered  New  Eng- 
land and  parts  of  Canada  and  other  states.  Later  he  put 
up  seeds  for  the  southern  trade,  shipped  to  the  principal 
cities  from  Washington  to  New  Orleans.  This  branch 
of  the  business  was  dropped  by  Comstock,  Ferre  &  Com- 
pany, in  1888  so  as  to  specialize  in  wholesale  trade,  but  is 
still  carried  on  by  the  Chas.  C.  Hart  Seed  Company  of 
Wethersfield,  probably  the  only  firm  in  the  State  specializ- 
ing in  that  line. 

Onion  growing  reached  its  height  in  the  period  from 
1860  to  1885  and  for  some  years  represented  many 
thousands  of  dollars  in  farming  operations. 

In  less  than  fifty  years  seed  growing  has  swung  across 
the  continent  and  the  Pacific  and  western  states  have  for 
years  been  able  to  produce  for  a  less  price,  largely  be- 
cause of  cheaper  labor  and  greater  yields  with  less  lia- 
bility of  loss  from  insect  pests,  storms,  etc.,  and  while 
Wethersfield  is  still  a  center  of  a  large  seed  trade,  seed 
growing  has  shrunk  to  a  very  moderate  amount.  The 
secret  of  the  development  of  an  extensive  seed  business  in 
Wethersfield,  as  in  the  Milford  and  Orange  region,  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  men  engaged  in  it  were  first  of  all  ex- 
tensive vegetable  growers  who  had  for  years  carefully 
selected  types  of  one  or  more  vegetables  to  secure  purity 
and  quality,  which  were  recognized  as  superior  and  were 
in  demand.  It  was  skillful  selection  and  growing,  rather 
than  selling,  which  made  the  great  reputation  of  the  place. 

The  entire  seed  trade  acknowledges  its  obligation  to 
these  growers. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  409 

The  foregoing  facts  are  taken  from  an  address  to  the 
Wethersfield  Business  Men's  Association  in  1916  by  Mr. 
S.  F.  Willard. 

The  other  seed  growing  and  seed  trade  center  of  the 
State  is  the  region  of  Milford  and  Orange  and  in  the  town 
of  Westport  where  onion  seed  as  well  as  onions  were  at 
one  time  extensively  raised. 

Seed  growing  as  a  business  was  perhaps  practiced  here 
in  the  Forties. 

In  1857  E.  B.  Clark  of  Milford,  succeeded  by  the 
Everett  B.  Clark  Seed  Company,  began  the  seed  trade  in- 
dustry in  that  section  of  the  State,  and  inaugurated  the 
growing  of  sweet  corn  seed  as  a  business.  S.  D.  Wood- 
ruff of  Orange,  succeeded  by  S.  D.  Woodruff  &  Sons, 
were  also  prominently  engaged  in  both  growing  and 
trading  in  seed. 

There  followed  a  great  expansion  of  the  business,  but 
since  1880  the  business  has  followed  the  same  course  as 
in  Wethersfield,  viz.,  great  shrinkage  in  seed  production, 
while  the  trade  in  seeds  has  increased. 

A  considerable  number  of  varieties  of  seeds  is  still 
grown  in  Connecticut,  largely  in  the  Milford  and  Orange 
districts,  several  of  which  are  not  grown  elsewhere  of  as 
high  quality,  namely  onions,  beets,  and  sweet  corn.  The 
Connecticut  sweet  corn  seed  is  in  demand  as  "stock" 
seed  from  regions  in  the  West  and  South,  where  home- 
grown seed  degenerates  in  a  few  years  and  fresh  stock 
must  be  introduced. 

For  the  two  seed  trade  centers  sweet  corn  seed  is  grown 
in  various  parts  of  the  State  and  it  is  in  large  demand  from 
the  canneries  of  the  country  for  it  is  a  surer  crop  here 
than  in  the  canning  districts,  besides  being  of  superior 
quality. 


410  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Probably  1,200  acres  are  planted  at  present  to  sweet 
corn  for  seed,  very  little  to  onions  and  perhaps  75,000 
pounds  of  beet  seed  of  exceptionally  fine  quality  are  yearly 
grown  in  the  State. 

Vegetable  Growing,  a  very  profitable  farming  indus- 
try in  the  earlier  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  did  not 
apparently  meet  much  serious  competition  from  other 
states  until  the  last  quarter  of  the  century.  As  early  as 
1 847  a  small  quantity  of  lettuce,  radishes,  mint  and  straw- 
berries were  brought  to  New  York  from  the  South,  but  in 
the  spring  of  1885  the  first  all-rail  shipment  of  Southern 
garden  truck  came  to  New  York. 

In  the  Eighties  also  came  the  first  car  loads  of  oranges 
from  Florida  and  strawberries  in  large  quantities.  At 
present  not  only  are  the  more  solid  fruits  and  vegetables 
brought  into  Connecticut  from  other  states  but  also  the 
very  perishable  things,  like  lettuce,  asparagus  and  spinach 
from  the  far  south  fill  our  markets  at  certain  seasons. 

In  spite  of  outside  competition,  however,  the  production 
and  sale  of  strictly  fresh  vegetables  for  our  home  market, 
seems  likely  to  be  an  enduring  business. 

Potatoes  were  said  to  have  been  raised  in  the  western 
part  of  the  State  in  1802  (58),  from  seed  balls,  the  second 
or  third  year  from  the  ball. 

About  1842  (20,  III),  potatoes  were  a  principal  crop 
in  Greenwich.  The  average  yield  was  200  bushels  per 
acre  and  they  were  shipped  to  New  York.  For  many  years 
Greenwich  sent  more  potatoes  to  New  York  than  all  the 
other  coast  towns  of  Connecticut  and  they  made  Green- 
wich the  richest  town  in  the  State  in  proportion  to  its 
population. 

The  Census  of  1840  reports  a  larger  yield  of  potatoes 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  411 

than  in  any  decade  except  1900  and  the  production  has 
fallen  from  about  three  and  a  half  million  bushels  in  that 
year  to  less  than  half  that  amount  in  1920. 

Poor  seed  and  a  number  of  rather  obscure  plant  dis- 
eases account  in  large  part  for  the  decline. 

Onions.  These  were  at  first  grown  wholly  as  a  vege- 
table and  Wethersfield  became  the  center  of  the  business 
in  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  1823  Dwight  reports  that  the  growing  of  onions 
there  is  still  profitable  but  not  so  extensively  practiced  as 
earlier  because  of  competition. 

Gradually  the  business  shifted  to  onion  seed  production 
as  noted  elsewhere. 

Later  onion  growing  became  extensive  in  the  Fairfield 
region,  being  specially  profitable  during  the  Civil  War 
when  the  "Southport  Globe"  was  raised  and  sold  for  ten 
dollars  a  barrel.  It  was  the  best  keeping  variety  ever  put 
on  the  market.  Probably  100,000  barrels  were  raised 
there  in  the  war  time.  In  1871,  onions  are  reported  as 
the  chief  crop  in  Westport  and  Southport,  yielding  an 
average  of  500  bushels  per  acre  and  the  highest  recorded 
yield,  900  bushels.  300,000  to  500,000  bushels  were  yearly 
raised  in  that  town.  In  1885,  a  tract  six  miles  square  in 
Westport  grew  80,000  barrels  of  onions  which  was  only 
two-thirds  of  a  normal  crop. 

Soon  after,  the  price  of  onions  fell  greatly.  The  white 
onion  was  more  in  demand  and  was  extensively  grown. 
But  the  difficulty  of  keeping  them,  the  prevalence  of  fun- 
gous diseases,  labor  scarcity  and  a  great  rise  in  real  es- 
tate values  together  nearly  extinguished  the  onion  grow- 
ing business. 

Tomatoes  were  scarcely  grown  in  the  State  until  the 


412  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  T.  S.  Gold  re- 
ports that  in  1830  he  planted  tomatoes  in  his  flower  gar- 
den in  Goshen  and  got  an  abundant  crop.  They  were 
called  "love  apples"  and  he  was  told  that  "they  eat  them  in 
France"  —  no  one  in  Goshen  did.  They  are  now  very  ex- 
tensively grown  in  the  State,  both  for  marketing  and  for 
canning. 

Tobacco  is  the  one  crop  which  has  shown  steadily  in- 
creased production  from  the  begiiming  of  the  century  to 
the  present.  For  the  last  fifty  years  at  least  it  has  met 
with  serious  competition  from  Florida  and  Georgia,  and 
from  Sumatra  (since  1881),  but  in  spite  of  this  it  has 
almost  constantly  held  its  place  as  a  superior  grade  of 
leaf  for  cigar  wrappers.  Its  growth,  rather  general 
through  the  State  in  the  earlier  years,  afterwards  became 
limited  to  the  light,  sandy  soils  of  the  northern  Connecti- 
cut valley  and  to  the  somewhat  stronger  soils  of  the 
Housatonic  valley.  On  such  soils  alone  can  tobacco  be 
grown  which  has  the  qualities  required  by  the  trade  for 
cigar  wrappers  or  binders;  the  only  uses  to  which  it  is 
adapted.  In  1840  the  production  was  235.8  tons,  in  1920 
2109.6  tons,  a  nine-fold  increase. 

Prior  to  1801  not  more  than  ten  tons  of  tobacco  were 
grown  in  Connecticut  yearly,  and  was  mostly  shipped  to 
the  West  Indies  in  hogsheads.  The  growers  got  from 
$3.00  to  $3.33  per  hundredweight.  This  was  a  narrow, 
so-called  "shoestring"  tobacco.  About  that  time  plug  and 
twist  tobacco  were  made  in  East  Windsor,  (at  first  by  a 
Mrs.  Prout  from  Virginia),  and  also  cigars,  known  as 
"paste"  cigars  and  later  as  "long  nines"  or  "Windsor  par- 
ticulars." (68,  1856).'^ 

23  Col.  Israel  Putnam,  of  Wolf  Den  fame,  is  credited  with  the  introduc- 
tion of  cigars  into  Connecticut.  It  is  said  that  he  went  as  Lieut.  Col.  of  the 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  413 

In  1810  factories  were  established  in  East  Windsor 
and  Siiffield  which  also  used  both  Spanish  and  Connecti- 
cut tobacco  in  their  cigars  and  peddled  them  through  the 
country  from  wagons. 

About  1824-1825  a  packing  house  was  established  and 
the  leaf,  in  bales  of  100  pounds,  (another  writer  says  400 
pounds ) ,  were  enclosed  in  boards  on  four  sides  with  the 
ends  exposed. 

Till  1833  "shoestring"  tobacco  was  grown.  But  about 
this  time  a  broadleaf  strain  was  brought  by  B.  P.  Bar- 
bour of  East  Windsor,  from  Maryland,  which  was  far 
l)etter  suited  to  cigar  manufacture,  by  its  shape,  texture 
and  neutral  flavor.  The  somewhat  careful  sorting  of  the 
leaf  before  sale  began  about  1840. 

The  first  tobacco  was  grown  in  the  Housatonic  valley, 
at  Kent,  in  1845  and  soon  after  in  New  Milford.  By 
1870  it  became  a  leading  product. 

In  1890  tobacco  was  first  grown  under  shade  in  this 
State  by  the  Connecticut  Agricultural  Station  and  the  sta- 
tion also  introduced  witji  it  the  method  for  the  rapid  fer- 
mentation of  the  leaf  in  bulk  instead  of  in  cases.  Both 
practices  immediately  gained  favor  and  in  1893,  645 
acres  were  grown  under  shade  in  the  Connecticut  valley. 

Then,  owing  to  lack  of  experience  in  curing  and  fer- 
mentation and  the  use  of  unselected  "Sumatra"  seed,  the 
raising  of  shade  tobacco  suffered  eclipse  and  the  acreage 
of  the  next  three  years  ran  from  40  to  70  acres,  but 
rapidly  increased  with  increased  skill  in  raising  and  hand- 
ling the  crop  to  6,100  acres  in  1918,  the  larger  part  of  it 

first  Connecticut  regiment  in  the  expedition  against  Havana  in  1762.  Shortly- 
after  its  capture,  while  on  a  scouting  expedition,  he  saw  nearly  every  native 
smoking  a  big,  roughly  rolled  cigar.  A  trial  of  them  so  pleased  him  that 
Tie  brought  home  a  quantity,  "as  much  as  three  donkeys  could  pack".  Later 
he  kept  a  tavern  in  Pomf  ret  and  distributed  his  cigars  which  soon  became 
very  popular. 


414  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

in  Connecticut.  The  shaded  tobacco  under  favorable  con- 
ditions commands  a  much  higher  price  than  that  grown 
in  the  open.  In  1924  the  acreage  was  5250. 

In  1856,  (43,  Vol.  I),  an  effort  was  made  to  induce 
growers  to  put  their  crops  in  a  general  warehouse  in  or- 
der to  rid  themselves  of  the  speculative  system  of  buying 
and  selling. 

It  was  claimed  that  in  the  three  years  during  which  it 
had  been  practiced,  on  a  limited  scale,  growers  had  got 
from  50  to  75  per  cent  more  for  their  crop  than  had  been 
obtained  from  "speculators,"  and  had  also  raised  the 
speculators'  prices.  Apparently  an  organization  was  ef- 
fected which  continued  for  some  years.  How  much  it 
actually  accomplished  or  how  long  a  course  it  ran,  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  recorded. 

In  the  fall  of  1922  The  Connecticut  Valley  Tobacco 
Association  was  formed,  its  members  binding  themselves 
for  five  years  to  sell  to  the  Association  all  of  the  tobacco 
raised  by  or  for  them.  It  operates  104  warehouses,  grades 
all  the  tobacco  from  its  members,  sells  it  and  as  sales  are 
made  pays  the  members  according  to  the  grading  of  their 
crop,  after  paying  the  expenses  of  the  organization.  At 
present  it  controls  87  per  cent  of  the  acreage  of  New  Eng- 
land tobacco  which  is  grown  in  the  open. 

Corn.  We  have  seen  that  maize  was  the  staple  crop 
and  staple  cereal  food  of  the  settlers  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  Gradually  wheat  displaced  it,  at  first  only  among 
the  more  prosperous  in  the  centers. 

But  baked  in  thin  cakes,  forerunner  of  the  "hoe  cake" 
of  the  South,  cooked  as  "hasty  pudding,"  with  molasses 
as  a  sauce,  later  made  into  bread  with  rye  ("rye  and 
Injin"),  corn  meal  was  widely  used  in  the  country  in  the 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  415 

eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries,  and  now,  while 
it  has  almost  passed  as  a  family  food,  it  has  not  passed 
from  some  of  us  as  a  not  unpleasant  boyhood  memory. 

We  have  also  noticed  that  corn  has  become  a  chief 
reliance  of  dairymen  to  make  good  the  lack  of  pasturage 
in  summer  and  to  provide  a  succulent  food  in  the  long 
winters.  While  the  silo  did  not  come  into  general  use 
before  1880,  the  value  of  the  corn  plant  for  fodder  was 
understood  long  before.  A  writer  in  the  "Connecticut 
Courant"  in  1821  calls  attention  to  corn  fodder  and  claims 
that,  properly  cured,  it  is  as  good  as  hay.  He  cuts  it  when 
it  is  about  ready  to  spindle  and  cuts  it  high  enough  so  that 
it  will  "spread  again"  and  give  a  second  crop. 

The  production  of  the  grain  increased  steadily  since 
1840  till  1909. 

The  yield  in  1919,  2,062,495  bushels,  was  468,000 
bushels  less  than  in  the  preceding  census,  and  may  be  ex- 
plained by  a  poor  season  and  in  part  by  the  larger  produc- 
tion of  wheat  after  the  war.  This  larger  production  of 
shelled  corn  includes  a  very  considerable  amount  of  sweet 
corn  seed  shipped  out  of  the  State  to  canneries  and  seed 
dealers. 

Rye  and  Oats.  The  crop  of  oats,  which  in  1840  nearly 
equalled  that  of  corn,  has  steadily  declined  to  the  present 
time. 

The  production  of  rye,  always  grown  in  smaller  amount 
than  oats,  has  likewise  steadily  declined,  though  it  is  still 
used  quite  extensively  as  a  cover  crop  and  green  manure. 

Wheat.  Connecticut  has  never  been  a  considerable 
grain  producing  State.  Even  in  the  eighteenth  centur}'  its 
wheat  supply  was  drawn  largely  from  New  York  and 


416  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

Pennsylvania,  and  after  1850  the  "golden  West"  almost 
monopolized  the  business.  Yet  the  State  has  been  slow  to 
quite  abandon  the  growing  of  wheat.  Thus  in  1845  a 
writer  in  the  "Cultivation"  says  that  more  or  less  wheat 
has  been  grown  on  his  farm  in  Cheshire  for  forty-five 
years,  and  the  crop  was  a  failure  not  more  than  three  times 
in  this  period.  For  the  fifteen  years  since  he  has  owned  the 
farm  there  has  been  no  insect  injury.  His  wheat  runs  62 
pounds  to  the  bushel. 

As  late  as  1871  wheat  growing  was  not  uncommon. 
Thus  100  acres  were  grown  in  Westport,  with  an  average 
yield  of  30  bushels  per  acre. 

Greenwich  at  the  same  time  reported  that  the  majority 
of  farmers  raised  enough  to  supply  them  with  bread. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  financial  crash  of 
IS36-37  so  wide  a  ruin  of  wheat  was  wrought  by  the  Hes- 
sian fly  that  more  than  1,360,000  bushels  of  wheat  were 
imported  into  this  country  from  Europe. 

From  1850  to  1880  38,000  to  50,000  bushels  of  wheat 
were  yearly  raised  in  Connecticut.  Then  the  production 
fell  to  about  7,000,  9,000  and  12,000  bushels  in  the  three 
following  decades,  but  rose  to  50,000  bushels  in  1919,  a 
larger  crop  than  at  any  time  since  1840.  This  was  a  war 
time  emergency.  Very  many  farmers  raised  satisfactory 
crops  of  wheat  and  found  that  on  good  land  a  yield  of  40 
bushels  per  acre  was  quite  possible. 

With  the  great  increase  in  poultry  keeping,  it  is  not 
likely  that  wheat  growing  will  immediately  fall  to  the 
pre-war  basis.  It  is  quite  likely  that  to  supply  feed  for 
poultry  and  for  dairy  stock  it  may  find  a  place  with  profit 
in  farm  rotations. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE  417 

Hemp.  As  has  been  noted,  hemp  was  grown  from  the 
early  days,  being  encouraged  by  bounties.  About  1810 
it  seems  to  have  been  quite  successful  on  the  fertile  banks 
of  the  Connecticut  River  and  on  warm  uplands. 

Long  Meadow,  just  over  the  Massachusetts  line  (19. 
1810),  is  stated  to  have  sold  the  year's  crop  in  Boston, 
New  Haven  and  New  York  for  $35,000.  Three  to  twelve 
hundred  pounds  per  acre  could  be  raised,  and  it  was 
quoted  at  $412  per  ton  in  Boston,  but  $200  was  a  fair 
price  when  trade  with  Russia  was  open.  Dwight  says 
(24,  Vol.  I).  "Hemp  has  lately  excited  the  attention  in 
earnest.  At  Long  Meadow  and  at  Enfield,  Conn.,  and  at 
some  other  places  in  the  neighborhood,  it  grows  luxuri- 
antly and  is  undoubtedly  the  most  profitable  crop  that  can 
be  raised."  In  1804  the  General  Assembly  put  a  bounty 
of  $10  a  ton  on  domestic  hemp  or  flax  which  was  later 
repealed.  But  as  late  as  1829  land  on  which  hemp  was 
raised  was  exempt  from  taxation. 

Probably  the  business  never  attained  any  great  vol- 
ume. The  census  of  1860  reports  the  Connecticut  produc- 
tion of  hemp  as  three  tons,  and  it  is  not  reported  later. 

Flax  was  widely  grown  in  this  State  in  the  first  quar- 
ter of  the  century  and  in  some  places  in  rather  large 
amount,  both  for  the  fiber  and  for  the  seed.  Thus  in  1802 
Milford  raised  100,000  pounds  of  flax  and  4,000  bushels 
of  flax  seed.  In  1807  (36.  II)  Fairfield  exported  about 
20,000  bushels  of  flax  seed  a  year,  and  later  more  flax  was 
grown  there  than  in  the  whole  of  New  England  beside 
(24,  III) .  The  average  crop  of  flax  was  about  200  pounds 
with  6-S  bushels  of  seed. 

In  1810  (9),  while  flax  in  the  country  exceeded  both 
wool  and  cotton  as  textile  fibers,  it  was  not  suited  to  New 


418  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 


England  conditions  because  of  the  labor  and  fertilization 
required,  but  as  it  was  needed  for  the  making  of  tow 
cloth  and  linen,  a  small  area  on  the  farm  was  generally 
planted  to  flax,  until  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  and 
by  1880  the  growing  of  flax  had  practically  ceased  in 
this  State. 

The  course  of  Connecticut  farming  since  about  1880 
and  its  present  condition  have  been  admirably  set  forth 
by  Prof.  I.  G.  Davis  of  the  Connecticut  Agricultural  Col- 
lege in  the  "Agricultural  College  Review,"  March,  1924. 

What  follows  is  chiefly  an  abstract  of  his  conclusions : 

During  the  last  forty  years,  in  the  rapid  changes  in 
economic  conditions,  Connecticut  agriculture  has  been 
forced  to  continual  readjustment  to  meet  these  conditions. 
This  has  resulted  in  more  intense  methods  of  farming 
and  elimination  of  the  less  productive  and  more  remote 
farm  lands. 

"Our  agriculture  of  forty  years  ago  was  a  livestock  in- 
dustry, based  on  hay  and  pasture."  These  are  crops  re- 
quiring a  broad  acreage.  But  when  the  seemingly  ex- 
haustless,  fertile  lands  of  the  West  were  opened,  wool, 
mutton  and  beef,  easily  produced  and  easily  carried  or 
driven  to  shipping  points,  was  brought  to  market  at  prices 
with  which  Connecticut  farmers,  with  small  fields  and 
brush  pastures,  could  not  compete  and  make  a  living.  So 
these  lines  of  farming  had  to  be  given  up,  and,  as  in  every 
other  business,  changed  conditions  had  to  be  met  by 
changed  methods  and  changed  production. 

The  extensive  production  of  beef,  sheep  and  dairy  man- 
ufactures (cheese  and  butter)  was  therefore  gradually 
abandoned.  But  these  are  hay-  and  grass-consuming  in- 
dustries requiring  extensive  acreage,  and  their  abandon- 
ment inevitably  caused  the  decrease  by  more  than  one- 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE         419 

half  in  improved  farm  acreage.  The  use  of  motor  ve- 
hicles for  local  transportation  instead  of  horses  accounts 
for  a  further  reduction  in  hay  acreage. 

What  has  been  the  result  ? 

1.  The  production  of  livestock  products,  which  are 
easily  transported  (meats,  wool,  butter  and  low-grade 
eggs)  has  rapidly  declined,  while  the  production  of  things 
which,  because  of  extreme  perishability,  can  be  produced 
only  where  they  can  reach  the  consumer  quickly,  in  per- 
fect condition,  has  increased.  Fresh  milk  and  high-grade 
eggs,  produced  for  local  market,  show  this  decided  in- 
crease. Dairying  does  not  require  extensive  pasture  land. 
Grain  feeding,  the  use  of  soiling  crops  and  the  extensive 
use  of  corn  silage  are  substitutes  for  grazing  land.  The 
fact  that  corn  is  the  only  food  crop  which  has  not  declined 
but  actually  increased  since  1880,  is  explained  by  its  ex- 
tensive use  in  dairy  feeding. 

2.  The  growing  of  cash  crops  which  have  a  high  weight 
per  unit  of  value,  such  as  hay  for  sale,  potatoes  and  cab- 
bage, declined  during  the  period. 

Low  freight  rates  tended  to  discourage  raising  them 
here,  but  the  higher  freight  rates  now  prevailing  may 
bring  them  in  again.  There  are  signs  of  this  revival  helped 
by  better  methods  of  production  which  the  Agricultural 
College  is  introducing. 

3.  An  advance  has  been  made  in  raising  crops  in  which 
we  have  distinct  soil,  climatic  or  seasonal  advantages, 
which  enables  us  to  more  than  meet  the  quality  or  prices 
of  our  competitors.  Such  are  tobacco,  sweet  corn  (for 
immediate  consumption  or  for  seed),  apples,  peaches  and 
perhaps  tomatoes.  Thus  the  production  of  tobacco  has 
increased  three-fold  since  1880.  Peach  orchards  have 
been  almost  entirely  developed  in  the  last  forty  years.  The 


420  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

farm  apple  orchard  has  been  slowly  dying,  but  the  busi- 
ness apple  orchard,  with  modern  methods  of  production 
and  marketing,  is  making  sound  and  consistent  progress, 
and  the  outlook  is  very  promising. 

4.  Growing  extremely  perishable  cash  crops,  in  which 
the  marketing  expense  of  competitors  is  very  high,  due  to 
distance  and  perishability,  certain  vegetables  for  instance, 
is  increasing.  It  may  be  added  that  the  more  enlightened 
taste  of  consumers  will  be  a  help  to  this  industry. 

They  are  learning  that  slightly  wilted  vegetables  are 
better  fitted  for  cattle  than  for  the  "home  circle,"  and 
that  sweet  corn,  after  twenty-four  hours'  keeping,  may 
serve  for  "roughage,"  but  is  not  a  delicacy. 

Now,  what  has  been  the  result  as  shown  by  statistics  ? 
Does  it  justify  the  opinion  so  often  expressed,  that  Con- 
necticut agriculture  is  ready  to  perish,  or  at  least  is  con- 
tinuing in  a  dead-and-alive  condition  ? 

Prof.  Davis,  who  has  had  exceptional  opportunity  to 
study  the  question,  makes  the  following  statements : 

"Even  when  all  corrections  have  been  made  for  the 
fluctuations  of  the  dollar  for  the  past  forty  years,  Con- 
necticut agriculture  shows  a  five-fold  increase  in  the  value 
of  its  products  per  acre,  and  a  three-fold  increase  of  the 
value  of  the  products  per  farm,  and  the  total  value  of  the 
products  of  the  State  has  doubled.  Specifically,  the  in- 
crease in  the  value  of  the  products  of  the  farm  since  1880 
has  been  from  $10  per  acre  to  $48.60  per  acre,  and  the 
value  of  products  per  farm  from  $540  to  $3,100."  ^* 

The  average  Connecticut  farm  is  producing  somewhat 
more  than  the  average  in  the  United  States. 

Prophecy  regarding  business  ventures  is  futile.  Faith 
in  the  future,  based  on  the.  record  of  the  past,  which  is 

**  Changed  by  E.  H.  J.  to  prices  as  per  commodity  index,  (1913-100) 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE         421 

the  sentiment  of  the  legend  on  the  seal  of  this  State,  is 
reasonable,  and  necessary  to  success. 

'There  certainly  has  never  been  a  time  within  sixty 
years,"  says  Prof.  Davis,  "when  the  opportunity  for  a 
man  with  the  right  training  and  character,  to  farm  with 
the  prospect  of  getting  a  good  income  and  attaining  a 
high  standard  of  life  for  himself  and  his  family  is  as 
^ood  as  it  is  today." 


422  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

AUTHORITIES  CITED 

1  Acts  and  Laws  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 

2  Adams,  Henry.  History  of  the  United  States. 

3  Andrews,  C.  M.  The  Fathers  of  New  England,  1911. 

4  Andrews,  C.  M.  Colonial  Folkways,  1919, 

5  Barber,  J.  W.   Connecticut  Historical  Collections,  1856. 

6  Barber,  J.  W.  History  and  Antiquities  of  New  Haven,  1870. 

7  Bidwell,  P.  W.    Population  Growth  in  Southern  New  Eng- 

land, 1810-1860. 
Reprint  from  Quarterly  Publication  of  American  Statis- 
tical Association,  Dec.  1917. 

8  Bidwell,  P.  W.   Rural  Economy  in  New  England  at  the  Be- 

ginning of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Trans.  Conn.  Acad, 
of  Science  and  Arts,  XX. 

9  Bishop,  L.  and  A.  G.  Keller.   Industry  and  Trade  (Develop- 

ment in  U.  S.)  1918. 

10  Carrier,  Lyman.   The  Beginnings  of  Agriculture  in  xA.merica, 

1923. 

11  Caulkins,  F.  M.  History  of  New  London,  1612-1860.   1895. 

12  Clark,  J.  L.   A  History  of  Connecticut,  Its  People  and  Insti- 

tutions, 1914. 

13  Code  of  1650.   Adopted  by  the  Towns  of  Windsor,  Wethers- 

field  and  Hartford. 

14  Collections  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society. 

15  Colony  of  Connecticut.  The  Public  Records  of. 

16  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  A  Statistical  Ac- 

count of  the  Towns  and  Parishes  in  the  State  of  Con- 
necticut, 1811. 

17  Connecticut  Agricultural  College  Extension  Bull.  68. 

18  Connecticut  Board  of  Agriculture  Report 

19  Connecticut  Courant. 

20  Connecticut  Farmers  Gazette. 

21  Connecticut  Soc.  of  Order  of  Founders  and  Patriots,  Publi- 

cation No.  5. 

22  Connecticut  Register. 

23  Cultivator,  The. 

23a    DeForest.  History  of  the  Indians  of  Connecticut. 

24  Dwight,  Timothy.   Travels  in  New  England  and  New  York- 

London,  1823. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE         423 

25  Eliot,  Jared.  An  Essay  on  Field  Husbandry  in  New  England 

as  it  is  or  may  be  ordered,  1748-1759.   1760. 

26  Fiske,  John.  The  Beginnings  of  New  England,  1889. 

27  Flint,  C.  W.  Milch  Cows  and  Dairy  Farming,  1858. 

28  Foreign  Correspondence  with  the  British  Government,  1668- 

1748.   Manuscript  in  the  State  Library. 

29  Hibbard,  A.  G.,  History  of  Goshen,  1897. 

30  Hollister,  G.  H.   The  History  of  Connecticut  from  the  First 

Settlement  of  the  Colony  to  the  Adoption  of  the  Present 
Constitution,  1857.  2nd  Ed. 

31  Josselyn,  John.   An  Account  of  Two  Voyages  to  New  Eng- 

land, made  during  the  years  1638,  1663.   London,  1635. 
Reprinted,  Cambridge,  1833. 

32  Josselyn,  John.  New  England's  Rarities,  Discovered  in  Birds, 

Beasts,  Fishes,  Serpents  and  Plants  of  the  Countrie, 
1672.   Reprinted,  Boston,  1865. 

33  Loskiel,  G.  H.  History  of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren 

among  the  Indians  of  North  America,  1794. 

34  Love,  W.  DeL.   The  Colonial  History  of  Hartford,  1914. 

35  Manchester,  H.  H.    The  Story  of  Silks  and  Cheney  Silks, 

1916. 

36  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society  Papers. 

37  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections. 

38  Matthews,  L.  K.  The  Expansion  of  New  England,  1909. 

39  McMaster,  J.  B.    A  History  of  the  People  of  the  United 

States,  from  the  Revolution  to  the  Civil  War,  1885. 

40  Memorials  of  John  Pitkin  Norton. 

41  Morgan,  F.   Connecticut  as  a  Colony  and  as  a  State,  1904. 

42  Morton,   Nathaniel.     New   England's   Memorial,    1669.    Re- 

pubhshed  in  1855. 

43  New  England  Homestead. 

44  New  Haven  Historical  Society  Papers. 

45  New  York  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  Report,  1886. 

46  Office  of  Experiment  Stations,  Washington,  Bulletin. 

47  Ohio  Agric.  Exp't  Station.  Bull.  226. 

48  Olcott,  H.  S.   Outlines  of  the  First  Course  of  Yale  Agricul- 

tural Lectures. 

49  Orcutt,  Samuel.    A  History  of  the  Old  Town  of  Stratford 

and  the  City  of  Bridgeport,  1886. 


424  HISTORY  OF  CONNECTICUT 

50  Palfrey,  J.  G.    A  Compendious  History  of  New  England, 

1873. 

51  Pamphlets  on  the  Agriculture  of  the  Indians  of  North  Amer- 

ica. Yale  University  Library. 

52  Peters,  Samuel.    General  History  of  Connecticut,   (from  its 

settlement  to  the  Revolution),  1781.   Am.  Ed.,  1829. 

53  Phelps,  C.  S.  Rural  Life  in  Litchfield  County,  1917. 

54  Purcell,  E.  J.  Connecticut  in  Transition,  1775-1818. 

55  Raffinesque,  C.   F.    American  Manual  of   Mulberry  Trees, 

1839. 

56  Sanford,  E.  B.  A  History  of  Connecticut,  1887. 

57  Shelton,  H.  S.   Documentary  History  of  Suffield,  1660-1749. 

1879. 

58  Silk  Question  Settled.    Pamphlets  393,  Yale  University  Li- 

brary. 

59  Spinden,  H.  J.   Ancient  Civilizations  of  Mexico  and  Central 

America.  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  1917. 

60  Stiles,  Ezra.  Observations  on  Silk  Worms  and  the  Culture  of 

Silk,  1763. 

61  Stiles,  Ezra.    Extract  from  the  Itineraries  and  other  Miscel- 

lanie  of,  By  F.  B.  Dexter. 

62  Stiles,  Ezra.  The  Literary  Diary  of.  Edited  by  F.  B.  Dexter. 

63  Stiles,  H.  R.  The  History  and  Genealogies  of  Ancient  Wind- 

sor, 1891. 

64  Stiles,  H.  R.   The  History  of  Ancient  Wethersfield,  1904- 

65  Stiles,  H.  R.  The  History  of  Ancient  Windsor,  1859. 

66  Thompson,  Holland.  The  Age  of  Invention,  1921. 

67  Trans.  Conn.  Acad,  of  Arts  and  Sciences. 

68  Trans.  Conn.Agricultural  Society. 

69  Trumbull,  Benjamin.    A  Complete  History  of  Connecticut, 

Civil  and  Ecclesiastical,  1630-1734.   1818. 

70  Trumbull,  J.   H.    Memorial   History  of   Hartford   County, 

1886. 

71  Tyler,  D.  P.  Statistics  of  the  Condition  and  Products  of  Cer- 

tain Branches  of  Industry  in  Connecticut  for  the  Year 
ending,  Oct.  1,  1845. 

72  U.  S.  Census  Office.   A  Century  of  Population  growth  in  the 

United  States,  1790. 

73  U.  S.  Census  Office.   Heads  of  Families.   First  Census  of  the 

United  States,  1790.   Connecticut. 


CONNECTICUT  AGRICULTURE 


425 


74  Webster,  Noah.  History  of  the  United  States,  1832. 

75  Wheedon,  W.  B.  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  Eng- 

land. 

76  Wilkins,  Updyke.  History  of  the  Narragansett  Church,  1847. 
"77      Winthrop,  John.    The  History  of  New  England.    New  Ed. 

1853. 
78     Wood,  William.   Wood's  New  England  Prospect,  1634.   Re- 
printed, 1865. 


University  of 
Connecticut 

Libraries 


mm 


mmi 


l'MiiM\i\' 


